Resources

A single snowflake hadn’t yet fallen when a team of snow researchers descended on a small town in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains this past fall. But that was intentional — they were preparing for the coming winter’s mission to answer a longstanding research question: What happens to snow after it falls?

The Wiki is a web-based platform with many goals, including helping to inform discussions about the next Interim Guidelines on the Colorado River. The site summarizes and shares the most recent Colorado River research, increases visibility of the activities of the research community, and makes accessible important datasets and tools.

Wildfires are increasing in intensity, frequency, and size, decimating ecosystems and devastating communities. As worries about the impacts of wildfires grow, researchers are ramping up efforts to understand wildfires’ water quality repercussions. Studies conducted following the Marshall and Camp fires will help lay the groundwork for future water resiliency efforts and community preparedness.

In October, Sublimation of Snow project research partners installed a suite of field instruments to fill in data gaps on the poorly understood process of how snow behaves in windy mountain environments.

More than ever, a sustainable future for the Colorado River basin depends on collaborative efforts and trust.

Snow sublimation, the process through which snow turns directly from a solid to a gas (water vapor) without first melting, may remove up to 90% of snowpack from the ground, but the process is not well understood. The goal of the SOS project is to improve and communicate fundamental scientific understanding of when, where, and how much snow is lost the atmosphere through sublimation.

The Colorado River Science Wiki is a web-based clearinghouse for scientific and technical information and data relevant to the Colorado River and management of its water and other natural resources.

A 10-year vision for research direction, mission, and intents for the AGCI Roaring Fork Observation Network (iRON)

Why look at winter soil moisture? Drier soils take up more spring snowmelt than wet soils, so a dry late autumn one year may mean lower runoff the following year. In this way, soils create a memory of drought from year to year.

Rachael Jones is an AGCI Summer 2021 Intern

I love watching the rising snowpack graph each winter and cheering on that moving dial that seems…