SnoWatch Displays Snowpack Data

Northern Water’s SnoWatch system displays snow accumulation – or “snowpack”- data from remote Snowpack Telemetry (SNOTEL) platforms in eight watersheds, which cover an area from west of Loveland, Colorado to east of Kremmling, Colorado.

Individual maps show the geographic location of each watershed and accompanying graphs display year-to-date snow accumulation in comparison to a normal or average year. Graphs are shown for a select group of SNOTEL sites that are representative of each Basin.

Melted Snow Key to Water Supply

Our water supply relies on melted snow from Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Much of our water comes from melting mountain snow in late spring and early summer. Higher snow pack means favorable water supplies; lower snow pack can signal an impending drought.

Our West Slope collection system managers use snowpack and runoff data for long-term planning. Water users and Colorado-Big Thompson Project allottees also benefit by knowing how much yield they can expect from their native (East Slope) water supplies.

The information is updated daily, usually before 8 a.m. Mountain Standard Time.

Choose a Watershed
Click the arrow on the watershed drop-down menu or click a watershed name on the map to choose a particular watershed. These pages have tabs. Click one of the tabs to choose either a map or graph. The Composite graph compares all the data for one watershed.

All of the data displayed on the SnoWatch site are collected by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the United State Department of Agriculture. The NRCS network has 730 remote data collection platforms in the Western United States; 91 are in Colorado. These Colorado SNOTEL sites continuously monitor snowpack and climate data and transmit the data to a central computer in Portland, Oregon.

Map of Colorado's SNOTEL system.

We have calculated the “Median” curves for each SNOTEL site using historical data. From the median date of first snow accumulation until the median date of peak snow accumulation, the average snow water equivalent for the period of record is shown.

From the median date of peak snow accumulation until the median date of complete melt, the median SWE for the period of record is shown. This methodology differs somewhat from similar graphics prepared by the NRCS. For more information about our methodology, contact Karen Rademacher.