Snow Measurement Guidelines for National （雪测量国家指南）.pdfVIP

Snow Measurement Guidelines for National Weather Service Surface Observing Programs U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION National Weather Service Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services Silver Spring, MD 20910 September 2013 Preface Snowfall and snow depth and their water equivalent are some of the most difficult, but important, weather elements to measure in an accurate, consistent manner. Snow has a profound effect on the national economy. Large snowstorms can paralyze large metropolitan areas and even isolate entire regions for days, affecting millions of people and resulting in loss if lives and billions of dollars. On the other hand, winter recreational activities that depend on snow generate tens of billions of dollars of revenue and melting western-mountain snowpack provide beneficial moisture for human and agricultural consumption during the summer. Effective use of snow data can result in more efficient decision making that affects many sectors of our economy, and in the process, save millions of dollars. Snow data are used by a wide variety of users, including National Weather Service (NWS) weather and hydrologic forecasters, climate researchers, water resource managers, construction engineers, plow operators, airport managers, winter resort managers, farmers, and many others. Given the increasing importance of snowfall and snow depth measurements for the diverse applications noted above, there has been a commensurate increase in the concern for the accuracy and consistency of these measurements that make up the “official” national database. These guidelines were prepared by the NWS Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services for use by all NWS observing programs. These are meant to clarify previous snow measu