part III

• primary drivers in weather and precip?

  temp and atmospheric pressure
• what is temporal variability?

  decrease with the increase in time
• why is water budget not simple?

  lack of rain gauges, climate change, limited duration
• measuring rainfall?

  non-recording rain gauge, recording rain gauge, weather station
• key principles of rain gauge?

  deep funnel to prevent rain splash, water repellant material, protect from wind, narrow opening to prevent evaporation
• sources of error?

  networks and point of measure
• estimating precip over basin?

  arithmetic average, Theissen polygons, isohyetal method
• arithmetic avg?


  simplest and easiest, not very accurate unless small uniform flat basin
• theissen polygons?


  engineering, better than arithmetic, bias uneven rain gauges
• isohyetal method?


  most accurate and time-consuming, line of map connecting points to have same rainfall; precip X sum areas
• precip key points?

  most important water budget, difficult to measure, different types of storms,
• future water availability?

  range- forage for livestock, ag- irrigation, municipal-drinking water, human safety-fires and flooding
• snowfall hard to measure
• snow-stake: simple gauge records depth with stake-measured daily
• snow survey- seasonal, transect with snow tube collect core from surface to ground, core weighed to determine swe
• SWE?


  snow water equivalent- estimate potential water in snowfall; need depth and weight
• water year?

  october 1st-sept 30th