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<br />melt flood standpoint is the maximum accumulation before the start of <br />the snowmelt season. Maxi~um accumulation will not ordinarily occur at <br />all points simultaneously, as Melt is greater in lower latitudes, lower <br />elevations and on the sunny slopes of the ground, but measurements at <br />a number of points in a basin can be used to estimate the maximum <br />simultaneous accumulation for the basin. <br />Frequency studies of maximum water equivalent of snowpack at a <br />point or for a basin can be constructed in the same manner as are <br />frequency curves of rainfall or runoff (as described in Volume 2). <br />These can be used to determine the snowpack corresponding to any speci- <br />fied frequency and to make some estimate of maximum snowpack potential. <br />Maximum snowpack potential is ordinarily not determined by inte- <br />grating maximum snowfall during a winter season, because of the great <br />uncertainties in estimating the frequency and sizes of storms that can <br />occur and the losses that occur through evaporation and intermittent <br />melt during the accumulation season. <br />Daily sn~lt can be estimated by use of a simple relationship to <br />daily temperatures as follows: <br />M . Cl (T - TO) (1) <br /> <br />in which: <br />M . Daily lelt in millimeters <br />Cl . Calibration constant <br />T . Daily average (or daily ~ximum) temperature in <br />degrees centigrade <br />TO . Base temperature in degrees centigrade (usually <br />freezing temperature, O~ C). <br />In lOst river basins, such a simple relationship is most satisfactory, <br />because detailed information on other lelt factors is usually inadequatefor successfully using more elaborate relationships. <br /> <br />2-12 <br />