Picture above is the site of the weather station, below Gothic Mountain. --Below is a video shot by Day's Edge Productions of the study site where all this data is collected as well as a look at the Upper East River Valley, where Gothic is located.
Gothic In Winter from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo.
The Gothic weather records are taken at the north end of the old town site of Gothic, CO at 2918 meters, or 9570 feet elevation, Longitude -106.992764274, Latitude 38.962914890. The measurements are taken at the same spot and in the same manor, so data collected is comparable from one year to the next. The first year of data was in 1973 but those numbers were discarded due to collection errors. The first full snow year started in the fall of 1974 and has been collected every year since then. Summer records were not kept until the year 2000, unless it snowed during the summer, though rainfall data goes back to 1989.
Snowfall is measured off of a snow board which is cleared twice each day- at 7 a.m. every morning and then usually between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Summer rainfall is taken at the same time period so an evening rain may show up on the following day rainfall total. Depth is measured with a ruler, and snow water content (SWE) is calculated from a standard rain gauge cylinder as issued by the US Weather Bureau. In fall of 2021 a new Geonor T-200B precipitation bucket was installed, to go along with an existing Davis Instruments tipping bucket, as back-up and double check of water content from snowfall, or from direct rainfall. This same method has been used since the onset of the study. The primary collection of data is done manually.
Snow is measured from the snow board and then the standard Weather Bureau cylinder is placed over the board and a metal plate slid under it to collect the snow which is then weighed to convert snow weight to inches of water content. Snow depth is a visual observation from a snow pole. Snow totals are recorded only at 'sweep' time, which is the time-of-day samples taken. This can affect totals in that if it snows from midnight to 7 a.m. the amount of snow could be higher as the snow has not had time to settle, but if it snows 7 to noon and then it sits, or more if the sun comes out, it will settle. However, the water content will remain the same.
The snow-year numbers get reset with the start of what i use as the snow year, September through August. Note that the US Weather Bureau, the Forest Service and most weather agencies use the start of the snow year as October 01 but, at least when i started doing this data, there was always snow in September and it stayed around from then through the winter so that the start of winter was more September than October. That is not always the case anymore, but it made sense at the time and i will continue it in the way it was started.
Long term weather records include the period of November through May, except for snowfall which has been year-round. Starting in 2000 summer temperatures plus rain were recorded, but only starting at that point, though rainfall goes back to 1989. That information has been collected year-round since then.
The temperatures are taken in degrees Celsius. Snowfall, snow depth and total snowfall are in centimeters but water equivalent (due to reporting methods to US agencies) has been kept in inches. There are two temperature recorders in case of any instrument failure, Davis Instruments and Campbell Scientific devices. Temperature data for this web site, since recorded by machine, is a standard midnight to midnight day record.
Snow and rain data is taken for the day's recording starting at sunset the night before and ending at sunset that day. Note that the Weather Bureau goes sunrise to sunrise, ending the days data at sunrise that morning.
Starting in the fall of 2023 the water content of the snowpack will be recorded from two snow pillows.
Wind and cloud cover information on the Home page is more generic. When referenced in this manner, calm means no wind at all. Light wind is usually 2-6 mph, variable wind means just that- it is changing through the day or at least part of the day. Moderate is usually 7-15 mph and strong is more than 15 or 20 mph. These are estimates as i had no long term accurate wind gauge.
As for cloud cover, completely clear means not a cloud in sight, clear means little cloud presence, partly cloudy is scattered clouds, partly/mostly cloudy is around 40-60% cloud cover or a rapidly changing sky, mostly cloudy is 65% to 90% cloud cover, cloudy is 90-100% cloud cover, overcast is a solid 100% cloud cover and obscured means i can't see a thing, get me out of here.
Snowfall is measured off of a snow board which is cleared twice each day- at 7 a.m. every morning and then usually between 4 and 4:30 p.m. Summer rainfall is taken at the same time period so an evening rain may show up on the following day rainfall total. Depth is measured with a ruler, and snow water content (SWE) is calculated from a standard rain gauge cylinder as issued by the US Weather Bureau. In fall of 2021 a new Geonor T-200B precipitation bucket was installed, to go along with an existing Davis Instruments tipping bucket, as back-up and double check of water content from snowfall, or from direct rainfall. This same method has been used since the onset of the study. The primary collection of data is done manually.
Snow is measured from the snow board and then the standard Weather Bureau cylinder is placed over the board and a metal plate slid under it to collect the snow which is then weighed to convert snow weight to inches of water content. Snow depth is a visual observation from a snow pole. Snow totals are recorded only at 'sweep' time, which is the time-of-day samples taken. This can affect totals in that if it snows from midnight to 7 a.m. the amount of snow could be higher as the snow has not had time to settle, but if it snows 7 to noon and then it sits, or more if the sun comes out, it will settle. However, the water content will remain the same.
The snow-year numbers get reset with the start of what i use as the snow year, September through August. Note that the US Weather Bureau, the Forest Service and most weather agencies use the start of the snow year as October 01 but, at least when i started doing this data, there was always snow in September and it stayed around from then through the winter so that the start of winter was more September than October. That is not always the case anymore, but it made sense at the time and i will continue it in the way it was started.
Long term weather records include the period of November through May, except for snowfall which has been year-round. Starting in 2000 summer temperatures plus rain were recorded, but only starting at that point, though rainfall goes back to 1989. That information has been collected year-round since then.
The temperatures are taken in degrees Celsius. Snowfall, snow depth and total snowfall are in centimeters but water equivalent (due to reporting methods to US agencies) has been kept in inches. There are two temperature recorders in case of any instrument failure, Davis Instruments and Campbell Scientific devices. Temperature data for this web site, since recorded by machine, is a standard midnight to midnight day record.
Snow and rain data is taken for the day's recording starting at sunset the night before and ending at sunset that day. Note that the Weather Bureau goes sunrise to sunrise, ending the days data at sunrise that morning.
Starting in the fall of 2023 the water content of the snowpack will be recorded from two snow pillows.
Wind and cloud cover information on the Home page is more generic. When referenced in this manner, calm means no wind at all. Light wind is usually 2-6 mph, variable wind means just that- it is changing through the day or at least part of the day. Moderate is usually 7-15 mph and strong is more than 15 or 20 mph. These are estimates as i had no long term accurate wind gauge.
As for cloud cover, completely clear means not a cloud in sight, clear means little cloud presence, partly cloudy is scattered clouds, partly/mostly cloudy is around 40-60% cloud cover or a rapidly changing sky, mostly cloudy is 65% to 90% cloud cover, cloudy is 90-100% cloud cover, overcast is a solid 100% cloud cover and obscured means i can't see a thing, get me out of here.
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