Cool weather dampens snowmelt

Unseasonably cool weather put the brakes on the snowmelt season through late April. The peaks on the hydrograph below are more to do with rainfall events than warm weather snowmelt. This year it looks like the snowmelt season with continue well into May.

Snowmelt season

The last month or so has shown consistently high river stage and discharge which is typical of the snowmelt season. The hydrograph given above shows that stage has been mostly between 60cm and 80cm with three peaks, the largest of which is at over 110cm. Rain-on-snow has been an important factor in generating these peaks, and the classic pattern of snowmelt diurnal peaks created during fine weather are not easily seen. Some snow remained at the higher elevation young cedar lysimeter site, but melt-off was complete for the other lysimeter sites.

Stage = 66cm, Ta = 5C, Tw = 6C

Mature cedar lysimeter site after melt-off

Larch lysimeter site after melt-off

Young cedar lysimeter site after melt-off