Five people with arms raised stand on a snow-capped mountain peak. They are collecting snow depth measurements.

From Backcountry to Backyard: Community Snow Observations Wants Your Snow Depth Measurements

Katreen Wikstrom Jones’ strongest memories from her winters growing up in Stockholm, Sweden are building snow tunnels on her porch. For the past ten years, Wikstrom Jones has been in Alaska, working for the state as a cryosphere hazard scientist. She originally got into snow science because she loves skiing, she says, and today snow … Read more “From Backcountry to Backyard: Community Snow Observations Wants Your Snow Depth Measurements”

Categories: Climate & Weather

Science in the Snow Audio and Video Podcast

Whenever you’re out frolicking in a winter wonderland, why not take a frolicking break every now and then to measure snow depth for your friends at the Community Snow Observations project? Your observations will help them verify data obtained from satellites and other remote sensing tools, and also fill in both spatial and temporal gaps … Read more “Science in the Snow Audio and Video Podcast”

Categories: Apps, Citizen Science, Climate & Weather, Ecology & Environment, Environment, Featured Projects, Geology & Earth Sciences, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water, videos

A hand holding a smartphone in the woods. On screen is the Mountain Rain or Snow website.

How can it snow when temperatures are above freezing? Mountain Rain or Snow has the answer — and wants your help studying it

A glimpse at the temperature during the next snowfall might surprise you: It may not actually be below freezing outside. Don’t worry, your thermometer isn’t broken, and you didn’t miss a memo about a change in the laws of physics. There’s a straightforward reason why it can snow above 32°F — though it does make … Read more “How can it snow when temperatures are above freezing? Mountain Rain or Snow has the answer — and wants your help studying it”

Categories: Citizen Science, Environment, Nature & Outdoors, Ocean & Water, Other

Citizen Science: the Animated Movie

There should be more animated movies about citizen science, don’t you think? Thankfully, the people at a weather-focused citizen science project called the Community Collaborative Rain Hail and Snow project (known by the funny acronym CoCoRaHS) have made this video! It tells the story of how the project started and explains how people all over the country are getting involved. Watch and find out how you can become a CoCoRaHS volunteer too! … Read more

Categories: Citizen Science, Climate & Weather

Modern snow-mapping models vs. The People

This past winter, we invited you to participate in SnowTweets and simply “measure your snow to help the planet.” SnowTweets is a citizen science project run by cryosphere researchers Richard Kelly (pictured far left) and Raymond Cabrera at the University of Waterloo (Canada), who sent us the following report to share with you! They’d love … Read more “Modern snow-mapping models vs. The People”

Categories: Citizen Science, Climate & Weather