Spring Creek — Colorado Dust-on-Snow Program (original) (raw)

Spring Creek Pass CODOS Site Dust Enhanced Runoff Classification March, April, May Precipitation SWE Plots Snowmelt Rates Hydrographs Snow Profiles Photo Gallery

Spring Creek Pass CODOS Site

Elevation: 10,800'
Latitude: 37°55'49.35"N
Longitude: 107°9'55.17"W
Slope: 5° Aspect: NE
Adjoining Watersheds: Rio Grande, Lake Fork
Associated Snotels: Slumgullion, Beartown

SCROLL DOWN

Spring Creek Pass CODOS Site

Spring Creek Pass CODOS Reference & Archives

Andrew Temple in the snow pit at Spring Creek Pass CODOS Site, March 17, 2012

Dust Enhanced Runoff Classification

CODOS has now observed eleven seasons of dust-enhanced snowmelt runoff behavior throughout the Colorado mountains (WY 2006-2018). Hydrographs at headwater stream gauges have been evaluated and classified within the framework of this dust enhanced snowmelt runoff space utilizing a 3 x 3 x 3 cell matrix corresponding to general characterizations of SWE, dust intensity, and spring weather, as shown in this figure.

A conceptual dust enhanced snowmelt runoff model integrating the interactions of March 1 SWE, dust intensity, and spring precipitation.

March, April, May Precipitation

SWE Plots

for Spring Creek Pass CODOS site

SWE Plots

for Spring Creek Pass CODOS site

For each Snotel site below, the first nine plots show a single Water Year's SWE relative to the site's historical record (1971 - current). The last two plots compare SWE and Dust on Snow events for two consecutive years. The shaded bands represent non-exceedence percentiles in the following order (from the bottom up):

Minimum - 10th percentile (dark gray)
10th - 30th percentiles (medium gray)
30th - 70th percentiles (light gray) with 50% trace in the middle
70th - 90th percentiles (medium gray)
90th - maximum (dark gray)

For a more detailed explanation, see http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/spi/explanation.html

Snowmelt Rates

for Spring Creek Pass CODOS site

Snowmelt Rates

for Spring Creek Pass CODOS site

Analyses of Slumgullion and Beartown Snotel data for Water Years 2006-2017 snowmelt seasons showing date and quantity of peak SWE, days from peak SWE to “snow all gone” (SAG), total additional precipitation after the date of peak SWE, an “adjusted” mean daily rate of snowmelt adding the additional precipitation to the peak SWE total, the maximum five-day moving average of daily melt, and the mean air temperature over the entire snowmelt period, from peak SWE to SAG. POR refers to each snotel's entire period of record.

See our Snotel Dataset page for downloadable Excel files for each CODOS site, and an "All CODOS Sites Aggregated" Excel workbook containing spreadsheets for Water Years 2006-2017 and a summary of all years combined.