Heavenly Valley SNOTEL upgraded to ‘Supersite’
STATELINE, Nev. – To support research and snowpack modeling efforts the NRCS has upgraded 18 SNOTEL sites across the western US to SNOTEL “Supersites”. As part of this effort, Heavenly Valley SNOTEL in the Lake Tahoe Basin was upgraded.
In addition to its standard sensors Heavenly now is collecting data for wind speed and wind direction, relative humidity, as well as incoming and outgoing long and short-wave radiation. All supersites are also testing a beaded temperature cable that hangs vertically from the tower to measure snowpack temperature every 8 inches (20cm). This application is still somewhat experimental and is intended to measure the snow’s vertical temperature profile.
This is helpful for predicting how much energy is needed to produce snowmelt which impacts flood potential during rain on snow events. These supersite sensors are in addition to the standard sensors at all Nevada and Eastern Sierra SNOTELs which measure snow water equivalent, snow depth, precipitation, air temperature, soil moisture and soil temperature.

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism
Readers around the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond make the Tahoe Tribune's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.
Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.
Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.