Snow-level radar at Happy Camp field site in California
Snow-level radar at Happy Camp field site in California (By Clark King, NOAA)
Basemap of California showing the individual sites in the snow-level radar network, as of March 2012.
Basemap of California showing the individual sites in the snow-level radar network, as of March 2012.
Example of the real-time snow-level product displayed on the PSD Data Inventory Page for Happy Camp on 21-23 March 2012.
Example of the real-time snow-level product displayed on the PSD Data Inventory Page for Happy Camp on 21-23 March 2012.
Click images for more details
Contact:  Allen White
March 30, 2012

Two New Snow-level Radars Installed in Northern California

As part of the HMT-Legacy Project with the California Department of Water Resources, HMT engineering staff from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory installed two new award-winning, snow-level radars in northern California in November/December 2011. The first radar site is located near the Orville Dam below Lake Oroville, one of the largest reservoirs in California. The second is in the Lower Klamath River Basin in the town of Happy Camp. Siting a snow-level radar in this basin was the brainchild of Rob Hartman, Hydrologist-in-Charge at the California/Nevada River Forecast Center (CNRFC). "The CNRFC models and forecasts several tributaries of the Lower Klamath River as well as the mainstem at three locations in California. Historically, these basins have been very sensitive to errors in our estimation of rain-snow elevation based on lapsed surface observations of air temperature," said Hartman. "Seemingly small errors in rain-snow elevation estimation (< 500 ft) can result in very different hydrologic model response. Having a continuous observation of rain-snow elevation really helps CNRFC hydrologists diagnose model performance and ultimately provide better forecasts into the future."

The two new snow-level radar sites represent the fifth and sixth deployments of a ten-station network that will be completed over the next year and a half. The map shows the locations of the six radars that have been installed to date. An additional radar is slated for Kernville, near Lake Isabella, at the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada. The snow-level observations are available to end users and the general public in near real time via a Google map display and through a clickable data inventory table. An example of the snow-level product from the Happy Camp snow-level radar is shown.

Currently, a snow-level is derived only when a radar brightband is detected during precipitation. Hourly averaged freezing levels (a similar variable used in weather and hydrologic forecasting) are then transmitted to NWS Region Headquarters in the data format used by the CNRFC. Soon, this product will include model analysis of the freezing level in addition to the observationally-based values in order to provide a continuous stream of freezing levels for use in hydrometeorological analysis and forecast tools. "The snow-level product developed by HMT has changed the way we do business with respect to the snow level," said Art Henkel, the Development and Operations Hydrologist at CNFRC.


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