There’s no business like snow business

Back in February, a reporter from the Gallatin North Missourian asked me how much snowfall I had recorded so far this past winter. She knew that I recorded data for CoCoRaHS, a grass-roots effort that collects precipitation measurements all over the United States. She also knew that we were seeing a really snowy winter, much above average.

So I added my totals up. At that point, my snow board measurements in Gallatin totaled over 51 inches during the 2009-2010 snow season. I promised her that I would give a summary once the winter was over.

As I write this, on May 6, I believe we are past the time for additional snowfall. The probability of seeing additional snow is very low, although it could still happen. Dr. Pat Guinan, our state climatologist, tells me that Fairport, Mo., in DeKalb County, saw eight inches of snow on May 3, 1907! But for this year, we don’t anticipate anything like that, so I think I can safely report the totals.

The first snow that I observed was a trace on Dec. 4. The first measurable snow occurred a few days later on Dec. 7-9, and the total from that storm produced 8.6 inches.

The last snow that I saw this year was on March 20-22, and the storm total from that one was six inches.

The total snowfall for the entire season was 57.1 inches. The precipitation for the months of December through March was 9.14 inches. That is found by melting down the snow and ice in your rain gauge’s outer cylinder, and measuring it in the inner cylinder, which measures to the 100th of an inch. The inner cylinder is taken indoors in freezing weather, since if left outside it would freeze and break. The outer cylinder doesn’t have that problem.

You may be wondering about frost. The first frost that I observed was on Oct. 18, which I recorded as "patchy frost." The last frost? I saw an "extremely light frost" on April 9, although on April 17 I noticed a few drops of frozen dew on top my car. But no observable frost. Of course, I’m in town, and low-lying areas in the country may have seen frost after that date.

I suppose that it could still frost, but hopefully we are past that this spring. There are too many crops in the ground so frost is the last thing we want to see.

Measuring snow each winter can become tedious after a while, but it is important information. Our national CoCoRaHS coordinator sent out a message late this winter, to show how important our measurements were. He included a message from the National Weather Service. Because of cloud cover, their satellites were unable to estimate snow cover in the northern plains. The NWS was encouraging CoCoRaHS participants to turn in reports for snow totals, so they could estimate what was still on the ground. They knew that there was still a lot of snow left, and that if there was a sudden warm-up, that major flooding could occur. Thus, those local on-the-site CoCoRaHS measurements would be very helpful in making their flood forecasts.

If you are interested in becoming a CoCoRaHS observer, please feel free to contact me and I’ll be happy to tell you all about it. All you need is an official CoCoRaHS rain gauge, the ability to submit your observations to the CoCoRaHS web site, and a desire to observe precipitation. Soon you’ll be singing along…"There’s no business like snow business!"