RIVER FORECAST CENTRE
River Forecast and Snow Surveys
Staff
of the River Forecast Centre (RFC) collect and interpret snow,
meteorological and streamflow data to provide warnings and
forecasts of stream and lake runoff conditions around the
province. Most of the meteorological and streamflow data are
collected by other agencies, but the RFC is the lead agency
in the province for the collection, quality control, analysis
and archiving of snow data.
The pages associated with this site are the principal method
by which the data and analyses are disseminated. The following
are available:
Interpretation
After
each snow survey, starting January, a commentary entitled
the Snow Survey
Bulletin (Snowpack and Water Supply Outlook)
is published. This includes graphs of regional indices of
snow and precipitation and hydrographs of representative hydrometric
stations. These are updated eight times per year. See the
archives for Snow Bulletins for the 1997 to 2004 seasons.
A
bi-monthly snow
pillow commentary on snow conditions based on
readings from the Automatic Snow Pillows (ASPs) is published
from October 1 through June.
Data
Remotely
sensed snow and meteorologic data from Automatic Snow Pillows
(ASPs), transmitted via satellite, are collected at over 50
sites around the province. Data are transmitted several times
daily with this near
real-time data updated on a daily basis. Stations
are actively monitored from the beginning of October until
all the snow has melted, usually in July. Graphs
of ASP snow water equivalents are updated weekly
during this time.
Manually sampled
snow survey data are collected from almost 200
sites around the province. Measurements are made at the beginning
of the month from January through April and twice monthly
in May and June, although not all stations are measured at
every sampling period. Previous Snow Bulletins can be found
in the archives.
Monthly readings at selected Ground
Water Observation Wells.
Data from previous years are available in the archives.
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