CoCoRaHS Tutorial: How to measure snowfall

This video is a short demonstration on how to measure new snowfall, and more specifically, how to measure the water content of snow, called "snow water equivalent" or "SWE". More important than depth, scientists are VERY interested in how much water is in the snow. Participating students collect core samples of the snow and then melt and measure the water content. Using real scientific instruments, students have the opportunity to contribute real scientific data that scientists and TV meteorologists use every day!

[@karitompkins6730]

I needed this. We get snow so rarely.

[@WX4GPS]

the problem I have is after I measure all the melted snow in the gauge and take my inner funnel reading when I walk back 5 minutes later there is more water in the large collecting gauge, I dont know where it came from, but there is probably another 1/100th I could squeak out, and why that didn't pour out of the gauge the first time..... question is to I count this or is this condensation maybe from the cold gauge now inside the warm house?

[@1ACL]

Where do I get the equipment?

[@rhunt08]

What this makes pretty clear is that there's no effective way to measure snowfall in a place where there's snow cover all winter. If I can't trust what actually fell into the cylinder (and I think it's way closer than this random "average," because I'm regularly in the same ballpark as others a few kilometers away who are measuring the same way), I wouldn't bother going out to check. Not only is there drifting everywhere, there is no way to know how much fell, or drifted, last night as opposed to what's been there since December.

[@leemarkowitz4709]

I think you are supposed to have a snow board that you clear after each measurement if you want to do this exactly