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Snow Survey, Water Supply Forecasting and SCAN Programs

Snow Survey, Water Supply Forecasting and SCAN Programs. Michael Strobel Director National Water and Climate Center Natural Resources Conservation Service Portland, OR michael.strobel@por.usda.gov. Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program.

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Snow Survey, Water Supply Forecasting and SCAN Programs

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  1. Snow Survey, Water Supply Forecasting and SCANPrograms Michael Strobel Director National Water and Climate Center Natural Resources Conservation Service Portland, OR michael.strobel@por.usda.gov

  2. Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program • The program provides agricultural water users and other water management groups in the Western States with water supply forecasts to enable them to plan for efficient water management • The program also provides the public and the scientific community with a database that can be used to accurately determine the extent of the snow resource

  3. Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program • 12 Western States and Alaska • 60 FTE(36 Field, 24 NWCC) • $10.760 M FY-08 funding • ~25.5M acres of irrigated agriculture • ~ $51.1B in annual market value(Ag. Census, 2002) • Water Supply Forecast Economic study to be released during 2008

  4. NRCS SNOTEL Network • SNOTEL network • 12 Western States and Alaska • ~760 sites • About 16 million observations each year • About 16.1 million downloads each year • Over 1,200 manual snow courses • www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/

  5. SNOTEL Site - Augmented Data Array • Snow water content • Precipitation • Temperature • Snow depth • Relative humidity • Wind speed / direction • Solar radiation • Soil moisture / temperature

  6. Soil Climate Analysis Network • SCAN (Soil Climate Analysis Network) • 146 sites in 39 States • Soil-climate monitoring • ~ 816K downloads in 2007 • Critical for drought monitoring • Precision agriculture • www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/

  7. Johnson Farm, Nebraska SCAN Site

  8. Water Supply Forecasts • Water Year 2007 • 740 locations forecast Jan-Jun with NWS • Over 12,141 forecasts issued by States to users • Over 1.9M visits to WSF pages • www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/wsf

  9. Snow School is a week long and held each January. This year, 53 students completed the course.

  10. Current Status of Program • Requests for new sites • Limitations of existing workforce – critical mass • Declining number of personnel • Increasing costs – salaries, equipment, travel • SCAN funding • 2010 Budget Initiative - SNOTEL – automation of 1,000 SNOTEL sites and conversion of snow courses to SNOTEL • 2010 Budget Initiative – SCAN – expansion of present network by 2,000 sites • Dugway Master Station • Failover for continuity of operations and data access

  11. Further information Michael Strobel Director NRCS National Water and Climate Center 503-414-3055 michael.strobel@por.usda.gov Webpage www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov

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