SNOTEL (snow telemetry) is the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s network of automated snow stations in the mountains of the western United States and Alaska. Each station weighs the snowpack with a fluid-filled pillow, measures its depth with an ultrasonic sensor, and reports every hour by radio.
SWE is the depth of water you would get by melting the whole snowpack. It is what water managers forecast runoff from, and the better measure of how much snow is really there: a foot of powder can hold an inch of water, a foot of spring snow four or five.
Each station’s snow water equivalent today, compared with its 1991–2020 median for the same date. The state and westwide figures sum the water across stations before comparing, so a big station isn’t outvoted by a small one.
Every hour. Stations report hourly and the NRCS posts the readings within about an hour. Values are provisional until NRCS quality control.
Every station page has the last 48 hours, the past week and the season against the median, plus a 7-day snow and temperature forecast at the station’s own elevation.