Large snowmelt versus rainfall events in the mountains

Abstract

While snow is the dominant precipitation type in mountain regions, estimates of rainfall are used for design, even though snowmelt provides most of the runoff. Daily data were used to estimate the 10 and 100 year, 24 h snowmelt, precipitation, and rainfall events at 90 Snow Telemetry stations across the Southern Rocky Mountains. Three probability distributions were compared, and the Pearson type III distribution yielded the most conservative estimates. Precipitation was on average 33% and 28% more than rainfall for the 10 and 100 year events. Snowfall exceeded rainfall at most of the stations and was on average 53% and 38% more for the 10 and 100 year events. On average, snowmelt was 15% and 8.9% more than precipitation. Where snow accumulation is substantial, it is recommended that snowmelt be considered in conjunction with rainfall and precipitation frequencies to develop flood frequencies.