Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

Winter snowpack serves as a crucial source of water that Reclamation water managers rely on to fill reservoirs and to provide water deliveries to customers across the West. At Reclamation, streamflow and water-supply forecasts, which are informed in part by snowfall, are used to inform daily reservoir operations, including water-supply and flood-management operations, as well as seasonal water-supply planning, and drought contingency planning. We propose to expand on previous and existing research funded through the Reclamation’s Science and Technology (S&T) Program to improve understanding of the synoptic weather conditions that result in snowfall across four watersheds in the western US.