“Storm Boards” are simple installations comprised of a horizontal white plastic board that is placed in situ on the surface of the snowpack with a 1 m vertical marker pole for identifying the board center and approximate new snow height. Storm boards allow newly fallen snow to accumulate on them while staying separated from moisture and energy exchange with the snowpack, thus creating a discrete sample of newly fallen snow depth & SWE (snow water equivalent) that can be measured to calculate the net moisture input of individual or multiple storm events to the seasonal snowpack.

Samples are measured with a 2” diameter plastic tube that allows the observer to non destructively take a snow core of the newly deposited snow; this core is weighed with a small hand scale - then the mass of the sample is converted to SWE. Depth of the snow sample is obtained with a snow depth probe or from graduated marks on the plastic tube. 3 or more replicate samples are taken for each board measurement and averaged. Total snow height (HS) of the snowpack is measured with a snow depth probe for each site & timepoint to track snowpack accumulation/ablation.

This dataset was collected for the purpose of quantifying the snowpack snow water equivalent (SWE) input of individual storm events and/or time periods; height and mass calculations also allow the calculation of new snow density (m/v) although the height (and therefore volume) of newly fallen snow can change quickly after deposition due to the thermodynamic properties of recently deposited snow crystals.  This dataset provides fundamental validation of the total SWE of frozen precipitation that occurred during storms at SAIL.  Therefore, this dataset will validate SAIL's Surface Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (SQUIRE) product.