WSC 83rd Annual Proceedings 2015 - Western Snow Conference · WSC 83rd Annual Proceedings 2015 60690_WSC Cover_nk.indd 1 12/15/2015 9:26:59 AM

WSC

83rd Annual Proceedings 2015

60690_WSC Cover_nk.indd 1 12/15/2015 9:26:59 AM

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

WESTERN SNOW CONFERENCE

GOLDMINERS INN, HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS GRASS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

APRIL 20-23, 2015

EIGHTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING

Gary Freeman (General Chair) Jon Lea (Secretary/Treasurer) Pacific Gas & Electric U.S.D.A. N.R.C.S, Ret.

Frank Gehrke – Conference Chair

Randall Osterhuber - South Pacific Area Chair Kevin Richards – Technical Tour Chair

Vince White – Vendor Chair Rick Kattelmann - Program Chair

Bruce McGurk - Editor

Printed By

Omnipress 1-800-828-0305 -

www.omnipress.com

For sale by the Western Snow Conference Order from:

Jon Lea PO Box 485

Brush Prairie, WA. 98606 [email protected]

Cover Photos:

Front: Lake Spaulding, CA By Bruce McGurk

Back Top: North Star Mining Museum By Bruce McGurk

Back Bottom: Spaulding Dam Release Valve & Jet, CA By Bruce McGurk

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2015 WESTERN SNOW CONFERENCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAPERS Comparison and Error Analysis of Reconstructed SWE to Airborne Snow Observatory Measurements in the Upper Tuolumne Basin, CA

by Edward H. Bair, Karl Rittger, Jeff Dozier, and Robert E. Davis ................................................ 1 Temperature Trend Biases in Gridded Climate Products and the SNOTEL Network

by Jared W. Oyler, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, Ashley P. Ballantyne, Anna E. Klene, and Steven W. Running ...................................................................................................... 15

Planning Beyond California's Three-Year Drought - A 2015 Hydroelectric Planning Perspective

by Gary Freeman ........................................................................................................................... 25 Communicating Drought-Related Water Resources Forecast Information in California - How Drought Has Driven Improvement in the Delivery of Water Resources Forecast Information for Water Managers, the Media, and the Public

by Alan Haynes .............................................................................................................................. 37 Trends in Snowpack Across California

by Minxue He, Mahesh Gautam, John King, Mitchel Russo, and David Rizzardo ....................... 45 The Influence of a Heterogeneous Mixed-Conifer Canopyu on Snow Accumulation and Melt

by Eryn E. Schneider, Andrew J. Larson, and Kelsey G. Jencso ................................................... 53 Understanding the Spatial Distribution of Snow Water Equivalent in Paired Basins in Southwest Montana, USA

by Jason Welz, Jordy Hendrikx, Stuart Challender, and Paul Stoy ............................................... 61 Variability of Cloud Cover and its Relation to Springtime Snowmelt and Runoff

by Edwin Sumargo and Daniel R. Cayan ...................................................................................... 77

Snow Pillows, LiDAR, and Streamgauges: Incorporating Snow and Streamflow Observations in the Basin Water Balance

by Brian Henn, Martyn P. Clark, Dmitri Kavetski, Bruce McGurk, Thomas H. Painter, and Jessica Lundquist .................................................................................... 89

POSTERS From Snow to Flow: Estimating the Timing of Peak Streamflow from SNOTEL Ablation Curves

by Kara J. Ferguson, James McNamara, Ron Abramovich, and Josh Johnston .......................... 101

Spatial and Temporal Snow Dynamics at the Southern Margin of North American Continental Snow Distribution

by Jonathan J. Donald and Temuulen "Teki" Sankey .................................................................. 105 Persistent Wave Structures and Western Droughts

by Marshall Liddle, Hans Moosmüller, and John Lewis ............................................................. 113 A Simple Algorithm for Identifying Periods of Snow Accumulation on a Radiometer

by Karl E. Lapo, Laura M. Hinkelman, Christopher C. Landry, Adam K. Massmann, and Jessica D. Lundquist .......................................................................................... 119

SNOW NOTES Yosemite Nature Notes - Snow Surveying, January, 1953 ....................................................................... 127 Minutes of the Western Snow Conference Executive Committee Meeting .............................................. 133 Minutes of the Western Snow Conference Business Meeting .................................................................. 137 83rd Annual Meeting of the Western Snow Conference – Attendees ...................................................... 139

Western Snow Conference Executive Committee Meeting Grass Valley, California USA April 20, 2015

In attendance: Abramovich, Ron Bellingham, Keith Freeman, Gary Julander, Randy Kattelman, Rick

Kunkel, Mel Lea, Jolyne Lea, Jon McGurk, Bruce Molotch, Noah

Osterhuber , Randall Pattee, Scott Richards, Kevin Rizzardo, David White, Vince

General Chair Gary Freeman called the meeting to order at 1504.

Minutes of the 2015 Executive Committee Meeting Welcome and Introductions

Those in attendance introduced themselves. Brandon Moore (North Continental) had family commitments, and was unable to attend this year. Fred Strauss, one of our most senior long-time members, said he was planning on visiting the conference during the week. There were no members lost during the last year.

WSC 2014 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Jon Lea read the Minutes from the 2014 Executive Committee Meeting from Durango Colorado. The minutes were printed in the 2014 Proceedings. No changes were made to the Minutes; they will stand as printed in the 2014 WSC Proceedings.

Treasurer’s Report

Jon Lea reported:

The 2015 Non-Profit paperwork was filed with Secretary of State for Washington State in November, 2014 Current bank balance as of April 7, 2015 was $22,411.56, and balanced with the Bank Statement. Fees for awards during the past year were: $628.07 Printing the 2014 Proceedings: $2,300 Some of our long term book resellers have been absorbed by other resellers during this past year, but the

standing order for the Proceedings remains the same. Copies of the 2014 Proceedings were mailed to the resellers in December. At the same time all of the “out of country” mailings were also completed. The total expense for this mailing was $212.70

The USFS handled the shipping of the 2014 Proceeding to the members. As of Friday, April 17, 2015, 106 people have registered for this year’s conference including eleven

vendors, all but 8 registered through the on-line registration. The WSC has made deposits of $25,528 toward the 2015 conference; we are anticipating approximately

$7,000 in hotel/banquet charges and about $1,500 for the bus rental for the field trip/spouse tour. So far we have paid approximately $900 in registration fees for our on-line registration. A copy of the latest balance sheet and a copy of the WSC’s 2014 Form 990 Federal Tax Return were made

available for inspection to the Executive Committee. All financial records are stored in LaCenter, Washington, and are open to inspection.

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Area Reports for the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Conferences

2015, South Pacific: Deposits for the Holiday Inn, Gold Miners Inn, and Christopher’s Deli, the caterer,

have been paid. There were a few more than anticipated for lunch at the short course, those fees will be covered with a later billing as there will also be catering adjustment for future meals. Kevin reported that all is ready for the spouse tour and the technical tour. The spouse tour will be to the Empire Mine, and then on to Nevada City, lunch will be provided. The Technical tour will be to Spaulding Reservoir, since the snowpack is so low, and then onto the PG&E Wise Powerhouse in Auburn. In order to tour the powerhouse, PG&E requires personal protective gear, long pants, no synthetics, closed toes shoes, eye and hearing protection and hard hats. PG&E and NID will provide hardhats, hearing and eye protection. Technical tour should be back to the hotel near 3:30-400 PM. Transportation will be via school bus. There are currently 29 signed up for the Technical Tour, and 8 for the Spouse. The short course on LiDAR was well attended, there were 37 signed up.

2016, North Pacific: Jolyne Lea reported, meeting location for the 2016 Conference will held at the Best Western Plus, Executive Inn located in downtown Seattle, during the week of April 18-22, 2016. The Hotel sends greetings to the Conference, and provided chocolate snowflakes for the Executive Committee. Jolyne Lea and Scott Pattee will be contacting the hotel to reserve the dates and get a contract. The Spouse tour will be downtown Seattle sights, and the Technical tour will be to the Skagit watershed with emphasis on Seattle City Light hydro projects, with a pass through the tulip festival and a trip past the Oso landslide. The last time the WSC met in Seattle was 1966. A joint meeting with the Eastern Snow Conference and Western Snow Conference was discussed earlier, but will not happen in 2016.

2017, North Continental: Ron discussed that the rotation will bring the WSC to Idaho in 2017, perhaps in the Lewiston area. There was additional discussion about holding a joint Western Snow Conference and Eastern Snow Conference meeting in the near future, as we are past due for another meeting. The last joint meeting was 1997 at Banff, Alberta. During the discussion, the dates and places of the ESC meetings were not clear. It was reported that the rotation for the ESC is to meet in the US during even numbered years and in Canada during odd numbered years. It was moved and seconded to confirm their meeting dates and locations for the next few years. Scott, Noah and Mel will work together to contact the ESC, and report to the General Chair via email. The ESC is scheduled to meet in Ohio in 2016, and in New Hampshire in 2018, which will be their 75th anniversary, but a review of the web page was unclear where the 2017 meeting will be held.

2018, South Continental: At this point, New Mexico will be the host location for the 2018 WSC meeting. Standing Committee Reports: Documents

It was agreed that printing of the Proceedings will continue, as the cost is still reasonable. So far this year; there has been $1320 in pre-sales of the Proceedings to book resellers and University Libraries. Cost to print and mail proceedings is about $21 per copy as long as USFS continues to help with mailing. It was suggested to investigate the option of providing color printing for the tables and charts, new pricing may make color printing affordable. McGurk reported the ongoing success of getting historic Proceedings on-line and searchable, there are still a few broken links that get reported, and they are fixed as they are brought up.

There was a discussion of getting the Notes from the Western Proceedings from University of Nevada Experimental Station from 1934 to 1948 also scanned and made searchable. There are companies which specialize in this sort of scanning. It was moved by Jon Lea and seconded by Rick Kattelmann to investigate this matter. Ron Abramovich volunteered to lead the search. It was further discussed about scanning some of the early publications of Snow Hydrology, such as the 1956 Army Corp of Engineers

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SNOW HYDROLOGY text. Bruce McGurk, Randall Osterhuber and Rick Kattelmann will see if this will be possible, the decision was made not to scan and post to the web page the older standalone copies of the Snow Surveyors forum.

Wilderness Access Committee

David Rizzardo (CA DWR) brought up that once again there are difference in the interpretation of the Wilderness Policy between, the individual Nation Parks, as well as individual National Forests in the Sierra Nevada, which have made conducting snow surveys and providing data and interpretations problematic in many headwater reaches. Each time there is a change in management, it seems there becomes a disconnect in the interpretation of the policy from previous management. Other members of the Conference have reported that this has again become an issue not only in California, but across the West. It was moved by Randall Julander and seconded by Scott Pattee that the Western Snow Conference should again send a letter in support of data collection activities in Wilderness areas to the Western Governors Association, the Western Water magazine (published by the Water Education Foundation) as well as the western members of Congress. Frank will search out the last letter that was sent as a place to start a new letter, and work with the General Chair to draft a new letter.

Awards

Both Jolyne Lea and Bruce McGurk had submitted revisions to the by-laws in respect to Awards, cleaning up some of the terminology and confusion on Honorary vs Life members, and the current awards offered at the annual conference. Currently there is only one Honorary member, and that is Bob Davis. The Secretary will keep a listing of the Life members. That listing will be reviewed at the next Executive Meeting in Seattle. The new terminology will be incorporated into the new by-laws. Also discussed were the awards that are offered by the WSC at the Annual meeting. Both Jolyne Lea and Bruce McGurk will provide a new awards section of the by-laws at the next meeting.

Documentation of the award winners will be provided to Valerie in order to update the web page. Old Business

. Prior to the meeting, the new updated By-Laws were made available for review by the exec committed by

Randy Julander. The recommendations by the WSC Executive Committee on revisions to the WSC By-Laws to reflect the modern operations of the WSC. Most notably, he suggests changes to how the WSC handles quorums and elections, officer terms, and awards. The new By-Laws were unanimously approved, with a note to incorporate the above stated additions for the awards next year.

New Business

Bruce McGurk mentioned that the Web domain name is due to be renewed. Bruce will work with Valerie LaPlante, to insure the name is re-registered, with the hope of renewing it for at least 5 years at a time. Network Solutions is currently our host for the domain name.

Vince White will work with Valerie to update the vendor logos, and insure that those vendor from this year are listed on the Web page. At part of the clean up on the vendor pages, it was agreed that those logos from more than 3 years ago should be removed.

Rick Kattelmann mentioned that the submission of abstract for the 2015 meeting went smoothly, however, there was a bottle neck with having only person administering the portal. Brue will investigate if it will be possible if the entire executive committee would be able to have a secure logon and thus be able to share common documents via the web page rather than through Google docs.

There was discussion reminding the area chairs to provide to the General Chair, the makeup of the local area Executive Committee. This will allow a new letterhead to be developed. Next year at the banquet,

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Scott Pattee will become the new General Chair. The North Continental area needs to provide a nominee for the next General Chair-elect.

Move to adjourn made by Randall Julander, seconded by Jolyne Lea The 2015 Executive Meeting adjourned at 1650. Respectfully Submitted, Jon Lea Secretary/Treasurer, Western Snow Conference April 20, 2015

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83rd Annual Western Snow Conference Business Meeting Grass Valley, California, USA April 22, 2015

Approximately 35 Western Snow Conference members and guests were in attendance. General Chair Gary Freeman called the meeting to order at 1610. Minutes of the 2015 Business Meeting General Chair Report

Gary Freeman welcomed the members to the Business Meeting. There were no lost members to recognize this year. The vendors were introduced and thanked for their support to the 2015 Conference. Gary and Rich Kattelman thanked the presenters for their contribution to the Conference.

Minutes of the Executive Meeting were read by the Secretary, Jon Lea, as well as a brief Treasurer’s Report

Old Business/New Business Discussion

. Bruce McGurk led a discussion of posting meetings on YouTube. It was decided to try a trial posting of

the winning presentations. Next year’s Conference will be during the week of April 18-22, 2016 in Seattle Washington. The 2017

meeting is tentatively scheduled for the Lewiston, Idaho area. A joint meeting between the Western Snow Conference and the Easter Snow Conference is being discussed.

Kevin Richards presented instructions for tomorrow’s field trip to Spaulding Reservoir and Wise Powerhouse.

The Awards committee will meet immediately following the business meeting Meeting adjourned at 1630. Respectfully Submitted, Jon Lea Secretary/Treasurer, Western Snow Conference April 22, 2015

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138

Attendees of the 83rd Annual meeting of the Western Snow Conference

Grass Valley, CA April 20-23, 2015

NAME AFFILATION EMAIL

1 Abramovich Ron Idaho NRCS - Snow Survey [email protected] 2 Ahmad Adeel California Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 3 Allen Jeremy Denver Water [email protected] 4 Alserda Larry Salt Lake City Public Utilities [email protected] 5 Anderson Jeff NRCS [email protected] 6 Andre Keith Novalynx Corporation [email protected] 7 Armstrong Pat CA DWR / Snow Surveys [email protected] 8 Bair Ned UCSB/CRREL [email protected] 9 Bellingham Keith Stevens Water Monitering [email protected]

10 Bender Stacie National Weather Service [email protected] 11 Beres Nicholas Desert Research Institute [email protected] 12 Berghoff Kevin NWS/NW River Forecast Center [email protected] 13 Biduk Steve Geo Scientific Ltd. [email protected] 14 Blanchard Chad US District Court Water Master [email protected] 15 Bolliger Ian UC Berkeley [email protected] 16 Brewer Tim Idaho Power Company [email protected] 17 Brong Brian National Weather Service [email protected] 18 Brunengo Matthew Portland State University [email protected] 19 Brylawski James GEONOR, Inc. [email protected] 20 Burak Sue Snow Survey Associates [email protected] 21 Campbell David BC River Forecast Centre [email protected] 22 Campbell Scott Alberta Envt. Mon. Eval. & Reporting [email protected] 23 Carew David AEI LTD [email protected] 24 Carkeet Jason Turlock Irrigation District [email protected] 25 Collins Brandon UC Berkeley [email protected] 26 DeGuzman Sean CA DWR/Snow Surveys [email protected] 27 Decker Rand Northern Arizona University [email protected] 28 DeSarno Sam California Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 29 Donald Jonathon Northern Arizona University [email protected] 30 Eitel Bob High Sierra Electronics, Inc. [email protected] 31 Erickson Jessica Nevada Irrigation District [email protected] 32 Fabbiani-Leon Angelique California Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 33 Fackler Steve Sacramento Municipal Utility District [email protected] 34 Ferguson Kara Boise State University [email protected] 35 Ferrell Gail Truckee Meadows Community College [email protected] 36 Forrester Harrison Yosemite National Park [email protected] 37 Freeman Gary Pacific Gas & Electric Company [email protected] 38 Froyland Hugo InterAlpine [email protected] 39 Gehrke Frank California Coop Snow Surveys [email protected] 40 Gibbons Eric High Sierra Electronics, Inc. [email protected] 41 Harpold Adrian University of Nevada, Reno [email protected]

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42 Hartman Rob National Weather Service [email protected] 43 Haynes Alan National Weather Service [email protected] 44 He Minxue California Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 45 Heggli Anne Hydrological Services America [email protected] 46 Heggli Mark Hydrological Solutions [email protected] 47 Henn Brian Univ. of Washington, Civil & Env'l Eng. [email protected] 48 Hunsbarger Brandon Sierra Hydrographics [email protected] 49 Johnck Charles Yuba County Water Agency [email protected] 50 Julander Randy NRCS Snow Survey [email protected] 51 Kattelmann Rick retired [email protected] 52 Kaufmann Matthias Hydrolog. Services America/Sommer [email protected] 53 Kunkel Mel Idaho Power Co [email protected] 54 Lacey King, John California Cooperative Snow Survey [email protected] 55 Lapo Karl University of Washington [email protected] 56 Larson Thor Nevada Irrigation District [email protected] 57 Lea Jolyne USDA NRCS NWCC [email protected] 58 Lea Jon Western Snow Conference [email protected] 59 Liddle Marshall Desert Research Institute [email protected] 60 Lute Abby University of Idaho [email protected] 61 Lynch Frank Retired from PG&E Hydro [email protected] 62 Mann William In-Situ.com [email protected] 63 Mazurkiewicz Adam Hetch Hetchy Water & Power [email protected] 64 McGurk Bruce McGurk Hydrologic [email protected] 65 McMillan Andrew Southern California Edison [email protected] 66 McPheeters Matt Pacific Gas & Electric Company [email protected] 67 Meyer Jeff ECORP Consulting [email protected] 68 Molotch Noah University of Colorado at Boulder [email protected] 69 Monier Wes Turlock Irrigation District [email protected] 70 Moosmüller Hans Desert Research Institute [email protected] 71 Neff Doug Campbell Scientific [email protected] 72 Nemeth Stephen Cal Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 73 Newsom David RHS Consulting, LTD [email protected] 74 Oaida Catalina Caltech/JPL [email protected] 75 Osterhuber Randall UCB Central Sierra Snow Laboratory [email protected] 76 Oyler Jared University of Montana [email protected] 77 Painter Tom JPL/NASA [email protected] 78 Pattee Scott USDA-NRCS [email protected] 79 Percival Catherine Pacific Gas & Electric Company [email protected] 80 Pickard Michael University of California, Merced [email protected] 81 Preszler Michael ECORP Consulting, Inc. [email protected] 82 Qualls Russel University of Idaho [email protected] 83 Rajagopal Seshadri Desert Research Institute [email protected] 84 Reintjes Darin Placer County Water [email protected] 85 Reising Andrew CA DWR / Snow Surveys [email protected] 86 Rheinheimer David UC Merced [email protected] 87 Rhodes Josh Southern California Edison [email protected] 88 Rice Robert Sierra Nevada Research Insitute [email protected] 89 Richards Kevin Pacific Gas & Electric Company [email protected]

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90 Rickly Mike Rickly Hydrological Co. [email protected] 91 Rizzardo David CA Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 92 Roche James UC Merced, Yosemite National Park [email protected] 93 Roos Maurice California Dept of Water Resources [email protected] 94 Rosier Steve Sierra Hydrographics [email protected] 95 Rumburg Scot USDA/NASS [email protected] 96 Sareliek Yuri AEI LTD [email protected] 97 Schneider Dominik U Colorado at Boulder/INSTAAR [email protected] 98 Schneider Eryn University of Montana [email protected] 99 Selkowitz David US Geological Survey [email protected]

100 Sindt Sue Nevada Irrigation District [email protected] 101 Skiles McKenzie NASA-JPL [email protected] 102 Smyly Teri Pacific Gas & Electric Company [email protected] 103 Stone Richard RHS Consulting, LTD [email protected] 105 Sumargo Edwin Scripps Institution of Oceanography [email protected] 106 Takamoto Alan NWS CNRFC [email protected] 107 Tolby Zachary National Weather Service [email protected] 108 Trustman Benjamin Desert Research Institute [email protected] 109 Von Glinski Gerd Apache Nation [email protected] 110 Ward Peter Hydrological Services America [email protected] 111 Wathen Dave US District Court Water Master [email protected] 112 Welz Jason Montana State University [email protected] 113 White Vince Southern California Edison [email protected] 114 Wilson Brian State of Nevada DOT [email protected] 115 Winchell Taylor CU Boulder [email protected] 116 Winegar Weston Sutron Corporation [email protected] 117 Wray Dirk RDC [email protected]

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