WSP10847

• File Number: 8102
• Description: Arkansas River Hydrographs
• Basin: Arkansas
• Date: 1/1/1985
• Author: USGS
• Title: Selected Hydrographs and Statistical Analyses Characterizing The Water Resources of the Arkansas River Basin, Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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ELEVATION OF SNOW-SURVEY COURSE, IN FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL

Figure 52.--Relation of mean April 1 snowpack to the elevation

of the snow-survey course.

Plots of the February through May first-of-the-month measurements (for
example, station 6K02, Tennessee Pass, is shown in fig. 53) show that the
April 1 snowpack is usually the greatest accumulation each year. In general,
the snowpack seems to develop rather uniformly through the April 1 meaSure-
ment. The February 1 snowpack is plotted versus the April 1 snowpack for
station 6K02 on figure 54. The regression line through these points indicates
that, in general, 60 percent (slope of 0.60) of the snowpack on April 1 accu-
mulated by February 1 during both dry or wet winters. This same relation
holds for over half of the snow-survey courses. The statistics of the ratio
of the February 1 measurement to the April 1 measurement for all 18 stations
are shown in table 5. Ten of the 18 stations and nearly all of the long-term
stations have mean ratios of about 60 percent (0.6). Most of the snow-survey
courses whose ratio is greater than 60 percent are in the central and southern
parts of the basin, indicating that late winter snowfall generally does not
accumulate in these areas.

Correlations between every combination of pairs of snow-survey courses
were computed using all first-of-the-month measurements together, and April 1
measurements alone. The best interstation correlation coefficient using all
the measurements was 0.96. About 2 percent of those correlations was greater
than 0.90; 18 percent was greater than 0.80; and 28 percent was greater than
0.70. The highest interstation correlation for the April 1 measurements was
also 0.96. About 5 percent of those correlations was greater than 0.90,
15 percent was greater than 0.80; and 26 percent was greater than 0.70.
Selected classes of inters tat ion correlation of first-of-the-month snowpack
measurements for every pair of stations is presented in the tables in the
"Supplemental Information" section at the end of the report.

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