Today the river stage had dropped to 0.372m (discharge measured at 0.458 m3/s) which is one of the lowest levels for the season so far. Depending on the timing of the heavy rains expected during rainy season (late June to late July), flows may fall much lower still.
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| Stage = 0.372m, Discharge = 0.458 m3/s |
We measured the discharge soon after a medium-sized flood (about 0.8m stage), when the stage had fallen to 0.64m with a discharge of 3.35 m3/s. The flow was swift with a maximum velocity of 0.9m/s.
In summary, much of the runoff over the past month was due to rainfall runoff rather than snowmelt runoff, compared to an average year.
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| Stage = 0.64m, Discharge = 3.35 m3/s |
In the stage hydrograph above you can see the moderate size flood caused by a rain-on-snow event during 17-19 April. You can also see the typical diurnal snowmelt runoff pattern which looks like a sine-wave with a steep rise and more gradual fall in water level each day. For Takane Amedas gauge, daily precipitation was 79 mm on 18 April with maximum intensity of 12.5 mm/h. Warm temperatures up to 13.4 degrees Celsius were measured in Murakami, with peak wind speeds of up to 21 m/s causing significant sensible heat transfer to the mountain snowpack. Total event precipitation was 105.5 mm at Takane.
However, today we visited Takiya River under perfect blue sky conditions for our survey and discharge measurement. The following photos show the discharge measurement and channel features around the gauging reach.
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| Stage = 0.545m, Q = 2.02m3/s |
Today we downloaded the stage data since December 2020. We can see there are many peaks during the winter and early spring season due to rain and rain-on-snow events which occur with warmer temperatures. Similar to the previous winter, we had some record-breaking warm temperatures, and snowpack was below average. January 2021 received snowfall, but February was much warmer than average (7th warmest in record), and March was the warmest on record. We can see that snowmelt has really progressed during March. Precipitation was well above average during January to March.
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| River stage during winter of 2021 |
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| River stage during winter of 2020 |
The table above summarizes the snow survey data for this winter season. The snowpack was below-average, with a peak of 28cm of snow water equivalent (SWE) in the larch stand, or 21cm of SWE in the cedar stand. The ratio of SWE for larch/cedar is 1.33 which is quite typical. There was 33% more snow accumulation in the larch stand due to lower interception loss of snow in the deciduous canopy.
Record warm temperatures during March meant that the snow accumulation peaked very early. Between 3 March and 19 March the snow melted at twice the rate in the larch stand compared to the cedar stand due to differences in the energy balance. On 19 March we managed to make the final snow survey and the first discharge measurement of the 2021 season.
Photos from 3 March:
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| Larch stand |
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| Cedar stand |
Photos from 19 March:
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| Snowmelt season now in full swing |
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| Cedar stand |
Our first snow survey this winter season. And our first in two years, due to the lack of snow last winter. This year is perhaps close to average conditions. Tough weather for our survey, with first rain and wind, and then wet snow. The rain-on-snow conditions caused the river to be high (about 0.7m stage), and muddy with sediment.
After much rain over the past couple of days the snowpack was very soft and wet in the larch stand. It makes it difficult to take a snow core sample as the lower end will easily break off. The cedar stand was still a little hard and icy in certain layers.
Snow densities were high for this time of year! About 0.35 for both sites. As we measure every year, the larch stand has deeper accumulation and higher snow water equivalent (about 25% higher than cedar) due to the reduced snow interception in the deciduous larch stand.
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| Larch stand |
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| Cedar stand |
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| Rain-on-snow conditions |
Before the winter season we always download the stage data from both the Kadec logger and the Hobo logger, and of course take a discharge measurement. Recent stage data from the Kadec logger plotted below shows two moderate peaks during November. The lower stage hydrograph compares the two logger systems for the second half of 2020. It seems there is greater discrepancy between them since October, with the Kadec data showing more noise during flow recession periods.
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| Recently thinned stand of cedar located very close to the gauged cross-section |
