CODOS UPDATE Dec 1: Microplastics article, New Radar, New Employee, Colorado Gives, Snow School
Greetings from Silverton,
A very busy summer has transitioned into a very busy fall, and now winter. We will issue a series of CODOS Updates over the next few weeks bringing the community up-to-speed on what has been going on at Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies. For now, a little tidying up from last year, we have posted the Season Summary for WY2024 to the CODOS website. The update includes a lot of data plots from our Senator Beck Study Basin station data and field observations, as well as from other climate and snow data products. Also included are links to WY2024 dust-on-snow conditions for Colorado watersheds using our Dust Enhanced Runoff Classification system. Hopefully this and our other season summaries will serve as informative references when wanting to remind yourself of what was going on over a particular winter.
This winter is starting out strong. The season really took hold, after the record breaking in many ways, Nov 5-9 storm that benefited the entire state but really landed hard on Eastern & Southeastern Colorado. We had another nice storm over the few days before Thanksgiving (snow accumulation map below). Currently, there is 31” snow accumulation as 9.6” SWE at Swamp Angel (11,060’). Major watersheds in Colorado vary between 93% of normal in Northern Colorado, to 167% of normal in the Southern Colorado. Always good to have a strong start to the season as invariably dry periods usually ensue.
Microplastics In Our Snowpack
A couple years ago we discussed how microplastics were discovered in the dust-on-snow samples we have been collecting statewide going back ~15 years: https://www.codos.org/codosupdates/april122022. Our USGS partners did an analyses with this newly discovered dataset and recently published a paper. It can be found here and on our websites (snowstudies.org & codos.org).
Durango Radar
After much anticipation, the new radar located across from the Durango-La Plata County Airport is now up and running. This is a game-changer for Southwest Colorado. Until now, the closest radars gave an incomplete picture as to what was headed this way because most of the storms that hit the region form below 28,000’ which is below eyeshot of these other radar stations. This radar should greatly improve the forecasting and tracking of weather events in the region. Check it out: https://www.lpcgov.org/departments/emergency_management/regional_weather_radar_system_project/index.php
New Employee
The home office is abuzz with Ella Bump starting as our new Research Associate/Assistant Director as of November 1st. Ella has worked for CSAS since 2021 on a seasonal, part-time basis. Now she is full-time and not a moment too soon with all the interesting projects we have going on. Read more about Ella here.
Colorado Gives Day is now
Thank you for considering making a donation to our efficient and productive non-profit. Colorado Gives Day, November 1 thru December 10, is the opportune time to donate. The Community First Foundation offers incentive funds and bonus drawings for non-profits that receive donations through Colorado Gives Day website. You can donate by following this link: www.coloradogives.org.
Your contribution will:
Continue the 20-year data collection effort at our energy balance and climate stations in Senator Beck Study Basin.
Support dust-on-snow observations and reporting across Colorado.
Support state-of-the-science research and modeling efforts.
Snow School for Water Professionals
We are really excited to offer Snow School for Water Professionals for another winter season. This year the class will be held February 19 - 21, 2025. The combination classroom and field course will begin on Wednesday morning at our office in Silverton and end on Friday afternoon (2.5 days). The class is perfect for anyone wanting to learn more about the role of snow and our mountain environments as it pertains to water resources, designed to enhance understanding of snowpack processes, snow monitoring and data. Click here to download flyer, please circulate in your workplace and forward announcement to folks you think might be interested. You can pay with credit card at snowstudies.org. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions
More Soon