Grant Will Allow Vermont to Upgrade Its Ability to Track Snow

Move over, Mount Mansfield snow stake. There’s a new measuring device in town.

The iconic ruler at the top of Vermont has been the gold standard for calculating snow depth for decades. But the University of Vermont has received a grant to install snow-monitoring equipment that will allow researchers to collect better, more varied data. These advanced recording devices, which include gadgets called “snow pillows,” will help forecasting for winter sports, as well as flooding and water resources, according to Keith Jennings, the director of research at UVM’s Water Resources Institute. That’s because they’ll measure depth, temperature and snow density — “the liquid water that’s within it,” Jennings said.

While the Mansfield stake is accurate, it’s not providing “information about the snow coverage that’s above it, below it or in different wind exposures on the mountain,” he added.

Beginning this winter, sensors will be installed at UVM’s Jericho Research Forest to measure at low elevations; Sleepers River in Danville to collect middle-elevation data; and high up Mount Mansfield.

Such sensors have been used out West for many years, according to Jennings, so they have decades of data from which to make predictions about snow and its water content. In the East, scientists have generally depended on computer modeling, which is less precise.

UVM’s recently released Vermont Climate Assessment shows why this type of research is important. The report found that winter is the state’s fastest-warming season. More rain means ski areas should have enough water to make snow — important because the report found that Vermont is getting about two feet less snow per year now compared to 1990.

The Vermont team, along with researchers in New Hampshire and Maine, received a $5.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the work.

“No matter what type of winter weather we get, we’ll have the equipment out there in the next couple years to better monitor it — particularly for snow,” Jennings said.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Measuring Up”