And that’s no April Fool’s Day joke…

In the water towers of Wyoming, beautifully wrapped in their winter blanket, April Fool’s Day is, literally and figuratively, a watershed moment of profound significance. And that’s not an April Fool’s Day joke.

For, in Wyoming’s high country, April 1st is the day we fortunate citizen’s of this great state mark our calendar’s to signify Mother Nature’s transition from winter to spring. It’s the day after she has completed her winter blanket for the year. It’s the day she decides it’s time for her winter blanket to start melting and refreshing, with cold clean water, all that her sky-reaching natural water towers provide.

I know that springtime is out there. The smell of snow melt is in the air.

David Whalen

On building a winter blanket…

In the cataloging nature of humans, Mother Nature begins her blanket building October 1st of each year (see footnotes). Throughout the next six months she adds layer upon layer to her white reflective blanket. Some times only a few inches at a time. Other times many feet at once. Occasionally for days at a time. Regularly, especially in January, with long breaks of clear blue skies in between.

Diligent. Gradual, but steady. Through gently falling snow flakes that slowly dance to the ground as if listening to a ballet. Or through blinding snow storms with temperatures well below zero driven by horrific winds, howling like the low, booming bass of a tymphony drum in a classical masterpiece.

The Pilot and Index Peak water tower, wrapped in its winter blanket.

Depending, yes depending, however, on the year…

Not all years are her blankets of equal depth. In some years, she builds a blanket much thinner than normal. In other years, she builds a blanket much thicker than normal.

We never know the thickness to which she’ll build. Until she’s completed her work on March 31st.

On yearly winter blanket building endeavors…

This year she’s been quite busy building a wet thick winter blanket in Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, and northwest Wyoming. Elsewhere in the West she’s been rather lazy, apparently deciding to take the year off by only creating a thin dry shawl. But it is her choice – to be industrious or laid back, for she has total control! All we can do is watch and wait…for six long winter months!

This is quite a contrast to last year, where she worked overtime, Sunday’s and holidays included, just about everywhere in the West.

SNOTELS tell about snow…

We humans have a way of tracking Mother Nature’s winter blanket building. We do this through installation of automated recording devices scattered throughout the mountains of Wyoming (and the rest of the West). Located mostly on public lands, YOUR lands, these sites record snow depth and snow water equivalent or the amount of liquid water that is in her frozen blanket. We coin these SNOTEL sites, an acronym for snow telemetry.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service operates these SNOTEL sites. They also produce wonderful graphics of snowpack conditions throughout the year (as shown above for example). A fun and useful graphic is one that tracks her winter blanket building and subsequent melting throughout the water year. Then comparing her current year’s work to the past 30-years of her career to know if she’s been slothful or busy as a beaver.

Winter blanket conditions at Wyoming's Kirwin SNOTEL site as of March 31, 2018.

Happy April Fool’s Day…no joking!

Mother nature’s “busy as a beaver” work this year in northwest Wyoming is nearing its end. April Fool’s Day is tomorrow. The day’s of cabin fever for me are about to come to an end. Spring is just around the corner and I can’t wait. Summer is then shortly behind. Followed by the glorious days of fall. That will then, inevitably, transition into another six months of winter blanket building. With results not to be known until March 31st, 2019. I wonder what April Fool’s Day will bring next year.

Glad now winter’s gone
Bradford Pear greets each new day
Gaily dressed for spring

Blossom seems to rise
Spirals up to waiting branch
Ah! a butterfly

Whirlwind rushes by
Swirling flashes snowy white
Butterflies dancing

Don your party wings
Come to the Butterfly Ball
Dance now winter’s gone

Jim Slaughter

Footnotes…

Water managers and users in the western U.S. think in terms of water years. A water year runs from October 1 to September 30. So we are presently in water year 2018, meaning it started October 1, 2017 and will end September 30, 2018.

Water years were established because of the way the water cycle works in the western United States. Beginning in October, after a hot, dry summer, the high country of the West starts receiving precipitation in the form of snow. This snow continues through the winter and into the spring. Deep snow packs are built over time, creating what is considered a natural reservoir of stored water.

April 1st is considered the day the snow pack is at its maximum for the year. Snow will continue to accumulate through April and May, but at the same time the snow pack that built all winter begins melting. Streams and rivers start rising as a result. By early to mid-June the melt is over and stream flows return to baseflow levels.

As a general rule, every foot of snow that falls from the sky translates to an inch of water storage (snow water equivalent).

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