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Maine Cooperative Snow Survey

This information is provided by a partnership with Department of Conservation, Maine Geological Survey and the USGS Maine Water Science Center.

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Survey Date	Equivalent Water Content in Snowpack	Change in Water Content from Preceding Survey	Snowpack Depth	Snowpack Density	Water Content in Snowpack Compared to Historical Values	Mean Water Content in a Drainage Basin	ASCII Text File
January 4, 2012	2012 Maine Cooperative Snow Survey began this week. Fifty-nine sites were visited across the state. Only sixteen of the visited sites had measurable snow, with five sites recording a trace. This left thirty-eight sites with no snow at all!
January 4, 2012
January 31, 2012	New data came in to fill in some big holes in the Allagash and St. John headwater areas so we have revised the maps. Snowpack depth and water content have increase significantly in the northern part of the state since early January while southern Maine shows a slight improvement. The most comprehensive survey of the year begins at the end of this month.
January 31, 2012
February 28, 2012
February 28, 2012
March 6, 2012
March 6, 2012
March 13, 2012
March 13, 2012
March 20, 2012
March 20, 2012
March 27, 2012
March 27, 2012
April 3, 2012
April 3, 2012
April 10, 2012
April 10, 2012
April 17, 2012
April 17, 2012
April 24, 2012
April 24, 2012
May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012

Provisional product; subject to revision

Final product; no revisions

Final product; revised from original product

No product for this survey date

Map and Data Type Descriptions
Equivalent water content in snowpack:	Maps of equivalent water content in the snowpack in 1-inch increments based on measurements obtained from the sources listed above.
Change in water content from preceding survey:	Maps of the change in equivalent water content in the snowpack from the preceding survey. Only prepared while weekly surveys are being conducted.
Snowpack depth:	Snowpack depth in 6-inch increments based on measurements obtained from the sources listed above.
Snowpack density:	Snowpack density (water equivalent in inches divided by snowpack depth in inches) based on measurements obtained from the sources listed above. A snowpack with densities above 0.33 is considered "ripe". A ripe snowpack no longer has the ability to absorb rainfall and would tend to release water during a rain event.
Equivalent water content in snowpack compared to historical values:	These maps (called quartile maps) show areas where measured values of water content are in the lowest 25-percent of measured values (significantly below normal values), the middle 50-percent of measured values (roughly normal for this time of year), or upper 25-percent of measured values (significantly above (normal).
Mean water content in a drainage basin:	Mean water content in a drainage basin. It is calculated by finding the mean value of water content in a basin from the equivalent water content map above. This average water content in the basin is used in some National Weather Service river flow models.
ASCII text file of snowpack data:	An ASCII text file of the data used in preparing the maps for the current survey. Includes the site id, site name, site latitude and longitude (in decimal degrees), site elevation (feet above mean sea level), the survey date, and the depth, equivalent water content, and density of the snowpack.

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