A new initiative will give northern New England states better data on the depth and composition of its snow.
Snow STORE — short for Science and Technology for Operations, Research, and Economic Development in Northern New England — is a collaborative project across New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. It will fund new infrastructure to provide more automated and comprehensive snowpack measurements.
In New Hampshire, participants include the University of New Hampshire, the Mount Washington Observatory, the New Hampshire Office of Outdoor Recreation, and Ski NH. They will work with other university, non-profit and industry partners in Maine and Vermont, as well as the National Weather Service and the Appalachian Mountain Club.
Snowpack has crucial ecological and economic effects for the region, according to UNH professor Elizabeth Burakowski, but how much the region has and what it looks like is changing rapidly due to climate change. Winter is warming faster in New England than any other season, she said at a webinar presenting the project Wednesday.
“We've seen a decline of about two to three weeks of shortening of the season, and we've also seen a decline in the amount of water stored in the snowpack itself,” she said
Less snow and changing water composition can have effects on things like the ski industry and flood risk, but also less immediately obvious groups and activities like farmers during the summer who face increased drought risk or loggers who rely on frozen ground to efficiently cut trees, said Jada Lindblom, an economic development state specialist with the UNH Cooperative Eextension who also presented at the webinar.
Burakowski and Lindblom said the project will give diverse stakeholders more and better information to adapt to a rapidly changing winter landscape. Right now, the snow data that is collected in the region is often done manually, at irregular intervals and at lower altitudes, despite most of the snow falling in the mountains, Burakowski said.
“I'm usually very hard pressed to find any stations in the northeastern United States that don't have more than 15 or 20% of their daily data missing from any given season,” she said.
This project aims to close these gaps by installing more automated data gathering tools across at 10 main sites in Northern New England, including at Mount Washington, Mount Sunapee, and Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire. These primary sites will collect measurements for both snow depth and snow water equivalent, which measures how much water is stored in snow.
“Most of snowpack is anywhere from 5 to 30% water, and the rest is all air pockets,” said Burkowski. “This is really important for understanding whether there's going to be a flood, having a snowpack that is 5% water melt versus 35% water is going to give you very different amounts of water.”
Snow STORE put the region more in-step with the Western U.S., which receives congressionally appropriated funding for its SNOTEL program. SNOTEL tracks these same metrics across more than 900 automated snow and weather monitoring stations. Burkowski said the Western states use this data primarily to help manage its water supply.
“That's a bit different than us where we're a bit more well watered throughout the year,” she said. “However, what we've known from the SNOTEL network is that snow monitoring data has been critical for many other industries besides just water supply.”
Lindblom said she wants to use this data to help with things like workforce development and preserving local traditions.
“We're working towards bringing current science and data to those who depend upon it,” she said.
New England’s Snow Store project received funding from the National Science Foundation in August, with $2.6 million going to UNH. Burakowski said Snow Store is working to receive appropriated funding, like SNOTEL.
