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Collage of Wisconsin specific publications and fact sheets

Publications of the National Water and Climate Center

Articles, reports, and help files published by the National Water and Climate Center and the Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program.

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Water and Climate Update Reports

The Natural Resources Conservation Service produces this report most weeks on Thursday using data and products from the National Water and Climate Center and other agencies. The report focuses on seasonal snowpack, precipitation, temperature, and drought conditions in the U.S. 

 

Water and Climate Update 2026-05-14 (4.29 MB)
Water and Climate Update 2026-04-30 (4.25 MB)
Water and Climate Update 2026-04-23 (4.61 MB)
Water and Climate Update 2026-04-09 (4.7 MB)

Click here to receive Water and Climate Update reports directly to your email

Sign up for either Drought Report or Snow Survey & Water Supply. Signing up for both will send additional information from the Snow Survey & Water Supply Forecasting program.

For access to archived reports, please email us.

Help Files and User Guides

Water Supply Forecast Charts User Guide (690.1 KB)
AWDB Web Service User Guide (834.38 KB)
Snow and Water Interactive Map Guide to Views and Controls (3.34 MB)
Snow and Water Interactive Map Glossary (March 2023) (200.39 KB)
Snow and Precipitation Update Report User Guide (506.96 KB)
DMP Editor User Guide (3.47 MB)
Report Generator Help Guide (3.22 MB)

Program Publications

A Measure of Snow: Case Studies of the Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program (694.51 KB)
A Measure of Snow - Summary (1.06 MB)
Development and Interpretation of Daily Seasonal Water Supply Forecasts (417.92 KB)
Statistical Techniques Used in the VIPER Water Supply Forecasting Software - Technical Note (181.44 KB)
Snow Survey Sampling Guide Handout (3.46 MB)
Snow Survey Sampling Guide (3.57 MB)
EVALUATION OF YSI TEMPERATURE CORRECTION EQUATIONS FOR BIAS-REDUCING SNOTEL NETWORK TEMPERATURE DATA (778.47 KB)
The History of Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (2008) (30.53 MB)
Evaluation of NOAA vs SNOW YSI Temperature Correction Equations, Atwood 2023 (2.52 MB)
TRANSFORMATION OF THE SNOTEL TEMPERATURE RECORD – METHODOLOGY AND IMPLICATIONS (998.9 KB)
General Manual, Title 210, Part 403 - Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (188.98 KB)

Climate Glossary

Climate Glossary

A glossary of terms commonly used in climate science.

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Professional Publications

A Machine Learning Metasystem for Robust Probabilistic Nonlinear Regression-Based Forecasting of Seasonal Water Availability in (2.68 MB)
A Recent Increase in Western U.S. Streamflow Variability and Persistence (570.23 KB)
A user agency’s view of hydrologic, soil erosion and water quality modelling (80.48 KB)
SNOTEL, the Soil Climate Analysis Network, and water supply forecasting at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (12.34 MB)
Assessing the new Natural Resources Conservation Service water supply forecast model for the American West: A challenging test o (6.81 MB)
Augmenting geophysical interpretation of data-driven operational water supply forecast modeling for a western US river using ... (5.33 MB)
Climate-Mediated Changes to Linked Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems across the Northeast Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest M (4.4 MB)
CHOOSING AND ASSIMILATING FORCING DATA FOR HYDROLOGICAL PREDICTION (550.86 KB)
Climate-Mediated Changes to Linked Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems across the Northeast Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest M (4.4 MB)
CURVE NUMBER HYDROLOGY IN WATER QUALITY MODELING: USES, ABUSES, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS (726.25 KB)
DAILY UPDATING OF OPERATIONAL STATISTICAL SEASONAL WATER SUPPLY FORECASTS FOR THE WESTERN U.S. (1.35 MB)
DOES INCLUDING SOIL MOISTURE OBSERVATIONS IMPROVE OPERATIONAL STREAMFLOW FORECASTS IN SNOW-DOMINATED WATERSHEDS? (1.32 MB)
Energy and Water Programs within the United States Department of Agriculture (375.68 KB)
Evaluating Seasonal Climate Forecasts from User Perspectives (1.21 MB)
Factors affecting seasonal forecast use in Arizona water management: a case study of the 1997-98 El Niño (75.2 KB)
Augmenting geophysical interpretation of data-driven operational water supply forecast modeling for a western US river using a h (5.33 MB)
Assessing the new Natural Resources Conservation Service water supply forecast model for the American West: A challenging test o (6.81 MB)
Improved Techniques in Regression-based streamflow volume forecasting (200.49 KB)
Innovative operational seasonal water supply forecasting technologies (327.5 KB)
Integration of Climate Information and Forecasts into Western US Water Supply Forecasts (164.21 KB)
Machine learning in Earth and environmental science requires education and research policy reforms (1.68 MB)
MEAN AREAL PRECIPITATION FOR DAILY HYDROLOGIC MODELING IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS (873.71 KB)
Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Nonstationarity on Seasonal Streamflow Predictability in the U.S. Southwest (6.97 MB)
Point-scale energy and mass balance snowpack simulations in the upper Karasu basin, Turkey (1.06 MB)
Predicting A River's Flow (2.23 MB)
Scale-free networks, 1/f dynamics, and nonlinear conflict size scaling from an agent-based simulation model of societal-scale bi (2.36 MB)
Simplified Cross-Validation in Principal Component Regression (PCR) and PCR-Like Machine Learning for Water Supply Forecasting (2.06 MB)
Snowpack data collection in the Mount Hood area using SNOTEL and geomorphic events related to snowmelt (839.64 KB)
Spatially distributed energy balance snowmelt modelling in a mountainous river basin: estimation of meteorological inputs and ve (633.81 KB)
The association between climate teleconnection indices and Upper Klamath seasonal streamflow: Trans-Ni˜no Index (660.59 KB)
Themes and Issues from the Workshop ‘‘Operational River Flow and Water Supply Forecasting’’ (416.82 KB)
Towards improved post-processing of hydrologic forecast ensembles (2.4 MB)
Water Year 2004:Western Water Managers Feel the Heat (1.18 MB)
Western U.S. Water Supply Forecasting: A Tradition Evolves (61.42 KB)
Future Changes in Snowpack, Snowmelt, and Runoff Potential Extremes over North America (7.18 MB)
31 years of hourly spatially distributed air temperature, humidity, and precipitation amount and phase from Reynolds Critical Zo (5.94 MB)

USDA Publications

Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting, National Engineering Handbook, Part 622

Title 210, National Engineering Handbook (NEH), Part 622, Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (NEH 622) provides guidelines, procedures, and practices for Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) employees and partners, cooperators, and volunteers to carry out the cooperative Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (SSWSF) Program.

Title 210, Part 622

Guidance Product for Daily Water Supply Forecast, Technical Note 210-1

This Technical Note documents the process used to develop the Daily Water Supply Forecast procedures and serves as a guide for helping users interpret the results. 

Technical Note 210-1

Statistical Techniques Used in Viper Water Supply Forecasting Software, Technical Note 201-2

This Technical Note documents the process used to develop the Daily Water Supply Forecast procedures and serves as a guide for helping users interpret the results. 

Technical Note 201-2

The History of Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting

The seven oral history interviews and three articles in this volume recount significant historical developments in snow surveying and waters supply forecasting in the Western U.S. since 1935.

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