Community Snow Observations

How backcountry snow enthusiasts can help transform snow science

Last summer I spent three days chasing lizards and counting nocturnal insects at my first ever BioBlitz in Basin and Range National Monument. BioBlitzes are a prime example of community science: projects that bring science out of laboratories and into our daily lives, involving regular folks in what has often been an elite pursuit.

Though the term BioBlitz was only coined in 1996, naturalists have been doing community science for decades. Five years ago, a civil engineer named David Hill partnered with NASA and started Community Snow Observations (CSO) to bring science to the slopes, and let the expertise of backcountry powder hounds inform advanced snow modeling. The data collected by snow lovers is proving critical for water resource management in California, as we adjust to the new normal of drought and deluge.

“Every single person in California is affected by water resource changes and decisions,” explains CSO Ambassador Alexandra Michell. “CSO allows community members to contribute to the overall understanding of the current state of the snowpack, which has direct effects on downstream communities, both in the headwaters and hundreds of miles away. The more people who participate, the greater our understanding of the snowpack, and the greater the sense of stewardship people have for water resources.”

In America, many people feel science is something that happens in laboratories and the results barely affect their lives. The perception that science is of the elite, by the elite and for the elite can be traced to the presidential race of 1824, when populist Andrew Jackson publicly mocked John Quincy Adams’ pleas for government funding of academic science. The rise of anti-science conspiracy theories is part of the legacy of Jackson’s vicious rhetoric.

President Abraham Lincoln’s words from the Gettysburg Address — of the people, by the people, for the people — have a scientific legacy as well. In 1900 naturalist Frank Chapman spearheaded America’s first community science project. Horrified by the tradition of grisly Christmas Day bird hunts, where hunters vied to kill the most birds, Chapman proposed a Christmas Day Bird Count where participants were to observe, count and record as many birds as possible on a single winter day.

Over a century later Christmas Day bird hunts have disappeared but more than 81,000 people participate in Christmas Bird Counts every year. The data they collect is one of only two large pools of information about birds’ health and distribution over time. Hill hopes to create a similar pool of data about snowpack by collecting data from backyards to the backcountry through CSO.

“Community Snow Observations started in 2017 as a NASA research project, to involve the public in gathering information about snow,” explains Hill, who teaches Civil Engineering and has an appointment with the Water Resources Graduate Program at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “Rather than just have scientists working in offices, we are trying to build relationships with people who work and recreate in snow.”

Hill and his original team realized quickly that simplicity was the key to success. “We figured let’s ask people to measure how deep the snow is,” remembers Hill. “They can go out in their backyard, or on skis or snowshoes, stick an avalanche probe, a ski pole, or a yard stick in the snow, and tell us how deep it is.”

CSO takes that information and uses it to check computer modeling of snow depth, moisture content and location. “When we run our models with information from the public there’s a strong improvement in our results,” Hill says with a satisfied sigh. “It’s a great win-win, we run better snowpack models and the public gets better information about what’s going on in their snowy backyards.”

Understanding snow distribution and depth is critical for water resources planning, and CSO helps reduce the uncertainty inherent in drought prone California. Snow essentially stores precipitation, which reduces flooding and can keep stream temperatures cool. “Snow is like a fantastic natural reservoir,” explains Hill. “It functions like a low-impact highly-distributed dam.”

“With climate change we are facing added challenges to forecasting water because the weather is so unpredictable,” explains Brooke Maushund, an avid backcountry skier, weather station technician, hydrologist and CSO’s first California ambassador. “More data means more accurate forecasting.

Those observations are especially critical in California, because it is one of the first states to see the impact so severely.

All the measurements CSO collects are public and open-source, available to avalanche forecast centers, federal agencies and snow lovers alike. People who provide the data can look at a theoretical model, without community input, and an actual model that includes community data and see the difference in real time.

Participants improve their own understanding of a place through their involvement with CSO. “Folks tell us they learn so much about snow through participation,” explains Hill. “They might visit the same site throughout the season, and learn how quickly and how much the snow changes, or on a long distance trip they’ll be amazed at how much the snow changes with elevation and from southerly to northerly aspect.”

And all you need to join is a measuring stick and a phone. “We designed this to be super easy to do,” explains Hill. “When you use our app it records the longitude, latitude date and time. We have come to rely on the experience and expertise of those folks and the information they send.”

Most of CSO’s measurements come from the western US, but the program has gone global, with data flowing in from New Zealand, Europe and even Antarctica. The Tahoe Basin and the Eastern Sierra from Sonora Pass to Bishop return abundant data every year.

“What we are really interested in doing is improving our understanding of the distribution and evolution of snowpack,” says Hill. “But we are also trying to improve the public’s understanding of their snow and water resources by connecting people to the water they use and where it comes from.”

As with all community science projects, recruitment and retention are ongoing challenges. So if snow is part of your winter activities, consider getting involved with CSO, through one of their websites communitysnowobs.org or mountainsnow.org.

“Each individual observation might seem like a drop in the bucket,” admits Maushund. “But every drop matters, and it adds up to a pretty big bucket.”

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Read other articles by Leonie Sherman here