February 12, 2007How Snowshoe Mountain gets its daily snow reportAs a skier, I've spent a lot of time looking at snow reports. And a lot of time wondering how the resorts gather the information they put on those reports. I looked into it for my story that ran in the paper on Feb. 9. One of the people I talked to was Linsay Kutsko, who compiles the daily report at Snowshoe Mountain, where she works in the marketing department. In addition to a great quote about how she considers the report a factual document and not a marketing tool, she provided a detailed -- and, I thought, really interesting -- rundown of how the resort figures out its weather report, and how she puts the daily snow report together. Here, in her own words, is the complete answer she provided: "Snowshoe, WV is an official National Weather Service reporting location under NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) The radar that the NWS uses is out of Charleston, which is inaccurate because of the extreme difference in elevation. (600 ft. vs. 4800 ft.) Therefore, they rely on Snowshoe’s reports for their daily records of temperatures, snowfall, rainfall and wind which they take into account when they are reporting their forecasts using their radar. They take three separate measurements to get the snowfall totals: Snow depth (on the ground, taken every 24 hours at 6:30 a.m.) – average depth taken from several locations on the mountain b/c of the windy locations (yes...taken by a yard stick, essentially) New Snowfall measured every 6 hours – usually higher than depth on the ground b/c on the ground is affected by ground temperature, air temperature, wind friction, compaction, thawing from sunlight, etc. Water content (from snow or rainfall) taken from a section of the snowfall that was measured and melted down. This has a lot of factors – was it a dry snow or wet snow? They measure this to find out approx. how much run-off will occur from the snowfall. [1 inch of snow is equivalent to about a tenth of an inch of rain (on average), but this number depends totally on temperature and humidity, which they take into account. They also take the temperatures at each observation, which is what they use to calculate the highs and lows. Snow Reporting I get in at 6:30 a.m. and first call the compressor house to find out the temperature on the top of the mountain and at the base. He tells me what trails are open, which lifts are open, what trails were groomed and if there was snowmaking overnight. He will also tell me what trails will have snowguns on during the day (if any). I usually talk to Sherman, he’s a snowmaker so he’s out each night and he tells me about the morning conditions and the average snow base in relation to how much snow we are making each night. Then I call the operator, who has been in touch with security and recorded the new snowfall for the past 24 hours. Then I look at the forecast on the NWS / NOAA website for Snowshoe, WV. I find this website is the most accurate as far as weather forecast and especially temperature. The snow report comments usually start with a snowfall update, then specific openings/closings and trail info and I end with a little info about whatever great deal we have going right now that anyone coming up to the mountain would definitely want to know about."
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About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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