Winter arrives

Stage = 50.5cm, Q = 0.96m3/s

December 16 brought the sudden arrival of winter. The weather changed from mild sunny days to snow. And once the snow arrives it usually continues right through to early April. I was caught out by not having the snow lysimeters fully primed and ready for the arrival of snow. So I was digging out and cleaning the lysimeters while the students made a discharge measurement in rather frigid conditions.

We also did our first snow survey of the season. About 23cm snow depth and 5cm snow water equivalent (SWE) at the larch site giving a snow density (SWE/depth) of about 0.2. We charged the winter precipitation storage gauge with anti-freeze at the paddy field site, but we ran out of time to climb up to the tributary site. That would be our job next time in early January.

Snow survey (larch site): depth 22.8cm, SWE 4.6cm, density 0.20.

Winter storage gauge at the paddy field site