Skiers and boarders prefer deep powder, but hydrologists, reservoir operators, ranchers, farmers, boaters, and city folk depend upon the snowpack for its water content, not its depth.

For example, the first snow survey of the 2005-06 winter season found the water content in the Tahoe-Truckee Region's snowpack was at 148 percent of normal. This above average measurement was good news after a slow start to the winter and the warm rainstorms the previous December.

People have relied on the Sierra Nevada snowpack ever since the first pioneers settled the West in the 1850s. Practically all of Nevada's agriculture depends upon irrigation by water taken from mountain runoff. Rivers like the Humboldt, Truckee, Carson, and Walker, and a few smaller ones, never reach the ocean. Today, for example, more than a quarter of a million Nevadans rely on the Sierra's annual spring runoff to fill depleted reservoirs and replenish ground water supplies. California, too, is heavily dependent on water from the Sierra.

"Nature Tells You Things"
At the end of the 19th century, data concerning the snow pack (future water supply) natural resource was not available. But that all changed when a young professor arrived in Reno in 1892. Dr. James Edward Church, known as the "father of snow surveying," seemed to be the right man in the right place at the right time. Church came to Nevada from the University of Michigan where he had graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa in the classics. Hired to teach Latin and art appreciation at the University of Nevada, Reno, Church's fascination with the nearby mountains drew him into the erudite world of snow surveying.

Church and his wife, Florence, loved to hike and climb the majestic Sierra and the two of them spent considerable time there. The beautiful meadows and the snowcapped peaks appealed to the artist in Church. While taking photographs of the spectacular scenery, his scientific side took notice of the region's integration of natural mechanisms. Church often said, "Nature tells you things if you but question her and open your eyes."

During the summer of 1904, Dr. Church repeatedly climbed 10,800-foot Mount Rose in order to build a shelter in which he installed a remote, weather observatory. He began recording snow and atmospheric conditions on Mt. Rose for the National Weather Service in 1905. Every two weeks, Church bravely snowshoed up to the storm-wracked summit to gather data on temperature, barometric pressure, and the snow pack. It didn't matter that the Mount Rose weather station was constructed, installed, and manned by an art history teacher; he was the first to record high-altitude weather in the Sierra.

Church soon learned that determining accurate precipitation measurements on Mount Rose was extremely difficult. High winds dispersed the snowfall erratically over the rugged terrain, making exact readings impossible. Church discovered that by selecting a measurement area within the lower forested slopes, he could accurately record the average snowpack found on the mountain.

Mt. Rose Snow Sampler
Church designed his surveying equipment to meet the rigorous Sierra conditions. Twenty-foot snowpacks demanded a sampling device that could penetrate icy snow without bending or breaking. Church simply called his invention the "Mount Rose snow sampler." The apparatus consists of a sectioned, hollow metal tube with a serrated cutter on one end. Teams of two surveyors each take turns driving the sampler through the snowpack until it hits soil or rock.
When withdrawn, the instrument retains all the snow inside the tube, from the surface down to the rock or ground. The water content of the sample core is then determined by weighing the snow-filled tube on a spring balance calibrated to indicate the ratio of water by weight.

Around the World
Unfortunately, Church's effort was not appreciated and the Weather Bureau withdrew its support for his work in 1917. Luckily, hydrologists from California and Nevada understood the value of the research and the snow surveys were continued without missing a season. Dr. Church took his homespun survey technology on a world tour, directing surveying parties in many regions, including the Himalayas, Greenland, Argentina, and Switzerland. A strong advocate of international friendliness, Church later reflected: "I went forth in search of science but found humanity instead."

Church's passion for the mountains resulted in a lifetime career that has had an impact on communities worldwide. His humble experience of hiking the Sierra grew into important science. The ashes of James and Florence are sealed in the corner stone of the Church Fine Arts Building at the University of Nevada. His favorite motto was, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and more often than not succeed." Some fool.

Mark McLaughlin is a weather historian who lives on the North Shore.