The "Total SWE Monday" Habit . . . Please give it a try!

The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center utilizes CoCoRaHS reports of precipitation, snowfall, snow depth and the water equivalent of the snow on the ground every day. CoCoRaHS data provide critical "Ground Truth" information that can improve the skill of their products and models. This will improve the accuracy of flood forecasts in the coming weeks and months. Click here to see how your CoCoRaHS SWE Reports are used by NOHRSC

Their guidance to us has been that if you can only report one day a week, it’s best to all report on the same day. Monday was chosen:

"The analysts at NOHRSC prefer a Total Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) observation taken once a week on Monday. The simple reason is that digging cores every day ruins your sample snowfield area (unless you have a big yard or open fields nearby).

A flood of Monday-morning SWE reports gives us a clearer picture of the overall snowpack than a few scattered results trickling in throughout the week. Daily total SWE would be great, but let's make "Total SWE Monday" a habit.

(Note: If you have the room, more frequent observations are appreciated, especially when conditions are changing. For areas that only infrequently get snow, there is no need to wait for Monday -- report SWE whenever you have the chance. For instructions on how to take core samples and report the snowpack SWE, please view our on-line training materials on snow: Training Slide Shows or watch the YouTube short animation on: SWE.