New weather station measures snowpack near Olney

Nov. 7—A new weather station on the Stillwater State Forest is expected to provide water forecasters with advanced snowpack data from the region.

The new SNOTEL site was installed recently at Stryker Basin near Olney by a crew from the NRCS Montana snow survey team. According to a press release, the team worked with the Stillwater State Forest staff to do site preparation in August for the three-day install endeavor in October.

"The state forest was a big part of getting this permitted and getting all those snow measurements for us over the years, "said Eric Larson, NRCS Water Supply Specialist.

Originally a snow course from 1977, Stryker Basin was ready for an update, the release stated. The idea is to automate the snow survey site so that it can replace the need to do manual measurements, which is time consuming and can be strenuous to access the remote locations.

Currently, manual snowpack measurements are taken at Stryker Basin from February to June, around the first of each month, with 10 measurements being extracted each time. In addition to the snow water equivalent and snow depth, which is collected at the snow course, the SNOTEL site collects and transmits air temperature and precipitation data on an hourly basis.

The installation crew included Larson, Colin Kultys, Mage Hultstrand, Lexi Landers and Lauren Austin, who worked 12-hour days at the site. Even though that area of Montana had been dry and in a drought, the week of the installment was not.

"It rained over 2 inches and temperatures were in the mid-40s on our second day," Larson remarked with a slight laugh.

The weather was relentless, but the snow survey team persevered and spent the three days working together to complete the installation.

"It's a lot of equipment to haul in and requires a lot of concrete," Larson stated.

It took about 32 bags of concrete and an array of equipment to install a shelter, snow pillow, two towers and a precipitation gauge. The spot where they were installing and building at was 300 yards away from a usable road.

"From there we used two side by sides to shuttle in all of the equipment," Larson said.

Larson explained that the snow survey program plays a vital role in providing water supply forecasts. By collecting the snowpack data at snow courses and using the SNOTEL network, the snow survey program makes mountain snowpack and precipitation data available to the public along with snowmelt-driven runoff predictions for the spring and summer.