Accurately Measuring Snowfall with an elevated Snowboard

[Doren]

I searched the forums, but could not find this particular question, so here it goes.

I purchased a 24"x24"x1" white professional cutting board, bolted it to a birdhouse pole mount, which attaches to a C-Stand & balanced everything. The unit is exactly 6' tall, so I am able to take measurements at the perfect eye level, plus raising it above our 4' chain-link fence.

I see most snowboards on the ground or on " elevated surfaces", such as deck railings, etc... Which led me to believe that having it elevated 6' in the middle of my yard, at least, 20' from any obstructions would be perfectly fine, but I can not find anything online to reinforce this theory.

I have read the NWS guidelines & multiple web pages on the matter, but I swear I had come across some measurers using deck railings, tables on decks, tables in yards, etc... to yield their results. I thought the reason the board was recommended to be so wide was to compensate for wind, but that assumption could be incorrect.

Can anyone lend some advice, suggestions, or an answer that what I've built should yield accurate snowfall measurements? It's greatly appreciated. Photo attached. Thanks!

 

[Mike S]

I'm not sure if this will answer all of your questions, but the Huntsville office of the National Weather Service put out a tweet the other day with information on gathering accurate snow fall measurements. They do mention, however, to avoid measuring on elevated surfaces.

 

[WesL]

I kinda wonder why elevated surfaces wouldn't be good. I'm going to see if I can find an answer.

 

[Mike S]

I kinda wonder why elevated surfaces wouldn't be good. I'm going to see if I can find an answer.

I wondered that myself. Maybe because official totals are based on ground measurements and even a few feet in height could make a very small difference temperature difference, thus affecting accumulation totals? I'm interested in the answer as well.

 

[WesL]

Right because wouldn't ground temp make a difference on how much stays on the ground. LOL Snooow many questions. </Dad Pun>

 

[JayF]

I would think that putting that same board on the ground would be sufficient. Kind of like what we do for Hail boards and reports.

 

[maroonedinhsv]

I believe the thought is that elevated surfaces are more susceptible to wind effects. However, in this NWS document, they seem okay with elevated surfaces (it's how they recommend officially measuring) as long as care is taken in placement. In the doc, snowfall is measured on an elevated board, snow depth is measured on the ground.

https://www.weather.gov/media/coop/Snow_Measurement_Guidelines-2014.pdf

 

[Doren]

Thank you, everyone! I had posted on 3 forums at the same time, but only 2 had replies, this one & another which I include the link below. One of the users, Cutty Sark Sailor, of the other forum, WX Forum, is a certified forecaster & has many affiliations. They posted very detailed reasons as to why I would not want an elevated surface for accurate results. For everyone that was curious, please check it out, they were very patient in helping me understand the reasons also. The wind was the biggest issue, as many thought. Again, thank you to everyone here! https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=43333

 

[Mike S]

Glad we could help. My apologies for the delayed response and welcome to our forum. We hope you hang around.

 

[Doren]

Absolutely! I might have asked for the incorrect data point? I found these definitions from another shared link. I guess I want to record both snowfall & snow depth? But probably snow depth is really what I want to know because I'm not recording the variables every 24hrs, so I apologize for asking the wrong data point. Thanks nonetheless!

• Snowfall: Measure and record the snowfall (snow, ice pellets ) since the previous snowfall observation (24 hours). (See Snowfall section below for details)
• Snow Depth: Determine the depth of the new and old snow remaining on the ground at observation time. (See Snow Depth section below for details)
• Water Equivalent of Snow: Water equivalent of melted snow collected in the gauge since the last observation. (See Water Equivalent section below for details)