Snowmelt season is early

Stage = 59.5cm

Today was a warm day with spring-like conditions. Snowmelt season is well under way, and the water level is up in the river. Snow survey at each of the lysimeter sites confirmed that there has been significant melt over the past 3 weeks, despite some fresh snow accumulation during last week. The chart below shows that peak snow accumulation occurred in early February. The snowpack will likely completely melt in the lower elevations over the next 2-3 weeks. At the larch and young cedar sites the snow depth averaged about 60cm, with relative densities of 0.4 and snow water equivalents of 25cm.

Snow survey at the larch site

The chart below shows the stage hydrograph for Takiya River over the 2 months from mid-January to mid-March. We can see that flows have been elevated since late February, due to snowmelt and rain-on-snow events, and we can even see the diurnal snowmelt pattern which occurs during fine weather conditions.