| Country | USA |
| Stations | 509 |
| Organisation | U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) |
| Contacts | Cara McCarthy |
| Website |
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ |
| Official References | Leavesley et al (2010), ‘A modelling framework for improved agricultural water-supply forecasting’; Leavesley, G., David, O., Garen, D., Lea, J., Marron, J., Pagano, T., Perkins, T. & Strobel, M. (2008), ‘A modeling framework for improved agricultural water supply forecasting’, AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts; |
| Abstract |
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) installs, operates, and maintains an extensive, automated system to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States called SNOTEL (for SNOwpack TELemetry). The system evolved from NRCS"s Congressional mandate in the mid-1930"s "to measure snowpack in the mountains of the West and forecast the water supply." The programs began with manual measurements of snow courses; since 1980, SNOTEL has reliably and efficiently collected the data needed to produce water supply forecasts and to support the resource management activities of NRCS and others.
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| Variables measured |
air temperature snow depth snow water equivalent soil moisture soil temperature |
| Depths of soil moisture measurements |
0.00 - 0.00 m 0.05 - 0.05 m 0.10 - 0.10 m 0.20 - 0.20 m 0.30 - 0.30 m 0.35 - 0.35 m 0.40 - 0.40 m 0.45 - 0.45 m 0.50 - 0.50 m 0.60 - 0.60 m 0.68 - 0.68 m 0.81 - 0.81 m 0.99 - 0.99 m 1.01 - 1.01 m 2.03 - 2.03 m |
| Soil Moisture sensors used |
Hydraprobe Analog Hydraprobe Sdi-12 n.s. |
| Data availability | from 1996-09-10 to 2025-07-01 |