NRCS Associate Chief Louis Aspey visits Mt. Hood SNOTEL

NRCS Associate Chief Louis Aspey visited Oregon in June 2023 to meet with NRCS' National Water and Climate Center (NWCC) and NRCS Portland Data Collection Office (DCO) staff, both part of the Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (SSWSF) Program. Cara McCarthy (NWCC Water and Climate Services Team Lead), Melissa Webb (NWCC Water and Climate Monitoring Team Lead), Sean Fleming (Portland DCO Supervisory Hydrologist) and Matt Warbritton (Portland DCO Hydrologist) visited the Mt. Hood Test Site SNOTEL (snow telemetry) site with Associate Chief Aspey to highlight the work of the SSWSF Program and its extensive mountain hydroclimatic monitoring network with more than 900 SNOTEL sites in the western U.S.

The NWCC is located in Portland along with the Portland Data Collection Office, which is part of NRCS Oregon. The NWCC and 12 western states including Alaska, administer the SSWSF program. The NWCC is primarily responsible for producing water supply forecasts and other hydroclimatic products, while state snow survey programs disseminate those products and data, in addition to maintaining the monitoring network. The Portland DCO’s operational area covers Oregon, Washington, and a part of northern CA, overseeing 156 SNOTEL sites and nearly 150 other monitoring stations. Standard SNOTEL sites have a snow pillow to measure snow water content, temperature sensor, precipitation gage, snow depth sensor, and a shelter to house equipment. Some sites have additional sensors for soil moisture, net radiation, wind, and relative humidity. Data from these sites are used in a variety of ways apart from water supply forecasts including for climate research, flood management, wildfire research and risk assessments, hydroelectric operations, ecological management, and more.