Snow Water Equivalent Observations from Western North America, 1960-2019

Daily snow water equivalent (SWE) observations from 1,065 remote telemetry stations across the western United States and Canada. The dataset provides two levels of data: a raw, formatted product spanning 21,794 days from January 1960 to September 2019, and a quality-controlled product organized by water year from October 1960 to September 2019. Data were sourced from multiple government agencies including the Natural Resources Conservation Service and various Canadian provincial ministries.

Use Cases

• [Modeling snowpack water storage] based on [daily SWE measurements from 1,065 stations]
• [Analyzing long-term climate trends] based on [a 59-year historical record from 1960 to 2019]
• [Assessing water resource availability] based on [snow water equivalent data formatted by water year]
• [Validating remote sensing or hydrological models] based on [ground-based station observations across western North America]

Strengths

• [Spatial coverage] includes [1,065 stations] across a major region of North America.
• [Temporal depth] provides a [59-year] historical record from 1960 to 2019.
• [Data quality options] offers both [raw (Level 1) and quality-controlled (Level 2)] products for different analysis needs.
• [Provenance] is documented with a [peer-reviewed publication in Nature Climate Change].

Limitations

• [Metadata completeness] specific column names and detailed station metadata are not listed in the provided descriptions, requiring inspection of the netCDF files.
• [Data freshness] the record ends in September 2019 and has not been updated in the provided metadata.
• [Potential data gaps] missing values are indicated by NaN, which may require handling for time-series analysis.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Conservation Service (US), California Department of Water Resources, Alberta Environment, British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Yukon Government Water Resources Branch

Collection Method

Remote telemetry station measurements of snowpack mass converted to water depth equivalent.

Time Range

1960-01-01 to 2019-09-01

Geography

Western United States and Western Canada