An assimilation was performed December 3, 2012 over the western United States, upper Midwest, and parts of Canada. Throughout much of the region water was added to the snow pack to adjust the model for over estimating snow melt during the recent winter storm event. In the Sierra Nevadas up to 5 inches of water was added, in the Cascades up to 3 inches of water was added, and throughout the Rocky Mountains between 0.5 to 4 inches of water was added. In the Yellowstone region water was removed from the snow pack due to the model under estimating melt rate, requiring up to 3 inches of water to be removed. Water was also removed from the snow pack over southern Manitoba and northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan due to recent warming. Snow is expected over the western region, especially at higher elevations, for the next few days with some areas of heavy snow developing. The model will be evaluated later this week to determine if an additional assimilation is needed.
NOHRSC Airborne Snow Survey Program
The Airborne program has no scheduled flights in this region for the week of December 10, 2012.
weather.gov
