CASM End-Of-Year Update and Look Ahead to 2024
Hello CASM stakeholders,
It has been another great year for the Colorado Airborne Snow Measurement (CASM) group! As the program continues to grow and more areas have snow-free data coverage, ASO snow-on surveys are now possible for more than 50% of the state area above 11,000 ft.
In lieu of the January CASM stakeholder meeting, we are sending this end-of-year update with a look ahead to WY2024 activities. The next stakeholder meeting will be held virtually on Thursday February 8th, 2024 at 1PM Mountain Time and will focus on 2024 activities and data products. A save the date for this meeting will be sent out by the Planning Team soon.
Proposed 2024 Activities:
CASM partners have been busy planning and working towards funding snow-on surveys for WY2024. Below is a map of planned ASO snow-on surveys for 2024, though the final basins that will be flown are dependent on funding. Various CASM entities applied to the USBR Snow Water Supply Forecast Program grant this year and Northern Water’s grant was approved for nearly $650,000 of federal funding for ASO surveys and forecasts over the next 3 years. This is an excellent first step toward more widespread federal support of this program and represents years of hard work by the CASM team.
2024 Proposed Snow Surveys, Funding Dependent
The basins that will receive snow surveys include: Blue and a portion of the Upper South Platte, Conejos, Dolores, East & Taylor, Front Range, Upper Roaring Fork, Upper Colorado at Windy Gap (including the Willow Creek, Granby, and Fraser basins), and the Upper Yampa/Elk River Basins. The final number and timing of surveys are still pending final funding, but will be finalized in the months to come.
Most snow-on surveys will be accompanied by iSnobal snowpack modeling and associated reports, as well as WRF-Hydro seasonal streamflow forecasts.
The flight coordination committee will meet weekly in 2024 from February through June to plan flight logistics around weather, resources, and when flights are most useful for different stakeholders. These meetings are also a place to share and discuss ASO data as it comes out. Reach out to erik.skeie@state.co.us if you are interested in participating in this group
The CASM Planning Team will continue to work towards establishing long-term funding for the program. Meetings with the larger CASM stakeholder group will be scheduled approximately monthly from February through October to provide program updates and gather stakeholder feedback.
2023 Activities Summary:
The CASM team coordinated many ASO snow surveys and administrative support projects during 2023. The map below shows the locations of snow surveys conducted in 2023 and areas with snow free data that are ready for future surveys:
The CASM stakeholder group met many times throughout the year to discuss CASM updates, go over flight results during the flight season, coordinate funding and grant applications, and continue planning the future of CASM.
Throughout the spring and early summer, CWCB staff hosted regular flight coordination meetings where stakeholders provided input on prioritizing flight timing based on current needs.
The CASM planning team hosted 4 large stakeholder meetings to share results, discuss the state of the snowpack and educate stakeholders on the use of ASO data for their water management activities
ASO Inc. completed a total of 20 snow-on surveys across the river basins shown in the map above. M3 Works modeled the snowpack for each of these basins, producing reports following each survey and biweekly in between surveys. WRF-Hydro forecasts were produced by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and delivered after each flight was conducted. These forecasts were shared out by email and in presentations to stakeholders.
The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) began producing experimental streamflow forecasts that integrated ASO snow survey data.
The CASM Planning team also presented to the CWCB multiple times about the status and future of the CASM program.
A new snow-free lidar survey was conducted for the Rio Grande River at Del Norte (headwaters of the Rio Grande), which makes this basin ready for snow-on surveys in future years.
All results packages from 2023 can be found here, or on the ASO Inc Data Portal.
The image below shows the extent of measured snowpack along the Continental Divide in 2023. We have nearly complete coverage East and West of the Divide from the Poudre through the Blue River.
2023 Snowpack Survey Coverage, Poudre through Upper South Platte on both sides of the Continental Divide
To all the CASM stakeholders—thank you so much for your continued support and involvement in this work and in CASM. We look forward to continuing to work together into 2024 and beyond. If you know of others who may be interested in joining the CASM stakeholder group, please forward them this email or reach out to us directly while cc’ing the newly interested stakeholders. For anybody that was forwarded this email and is interested in being added to future CASM communications and monthly meetings, you can respond directly to this email or reach out to page.weil@lrewater.com in a separate message.
Thank you and Happy New Year from the CASM Planning Team!
