British Columbia Automated Snow Weather Station Data, 2011-2016

Hourly and daily archived meteorological data from automated snow weather stations across British Columbia. The dataset likely contains snow water equivalent, snow depth, air temperature, and precipitation measurements. It is provided by the Government of British Columbia and covers hourly data from October 1, 2011 to January 8, 2016, and daily data from station installation dates to September 30, 2011.

Use Cases

• Forecast seasonal water supply based on snow water equivalent measurements.
• Analyze temperature trends in remote, high-elevation locations.
• Model snow accumulation and melt patterns using snow depth and precipitation data.
• Validate satellite-derived snowpack estimates with ground station observations.

Strengths

• Hourly temporal resolution for key snowpack variables from 2011 to 2016.
• Includes quality codes (e.g., *, U, E, R) for daily data to flag missing or estimated values.
• Data is collected from a network of stations operated by multiple partner organizations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Government of British Columbia

Collection Method

Data collected hourly and transmitted via GOES satellites from automated stations.

Time Range

Hourly data: October 1, 2011 to January 8, 2016. Daily data: station installation dates to September 30, 2011.

Geography

British Columbia, Canada, primarily remote and high elevation locations.