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44 Potato Grower |NOVEMBER 2015 Most of us have strong opinions about snow during the winter. For some, it's a curse. Others enjoy the recreation heavy snowfall brings. Yet, once warmer weather comes, we tend to forget about those piles of fluffy white stuff that once towered over our driveways. In mountainous regions, snow cover plays a critical role in water supplies. Typically, melting snow meets with three fates. It can run off the surface of the soil. It can evaporate and return moisture to the air. Finally— and most importantly—it can replenish underground water levels. This process is called groundwater recharge. Changing climate conditions have caused dramatic changes in groundwater levels. "The lower than historically normal snowfall in recent years is one environmental factor that has contributed to the current drought in California," says Ryan Webb, a Ph.D. student in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State University. Webb's group recently published a study aimed at understanding the changes in soil wetting and drying that occur as snow melts in mountainous, snow-packed regions. The study examined subsurface water content levels in the Sierra Nevada in California. In these regions, soils do not freeze during the winter and remain wet beneath the snowpack. It's not easy to measure groundwater levels, due to variability in soil composition and bedrock. In addition, a melting snowpack introduces its own variables. "Because the variability in groundwater recharge is occurring beneath the ground surface, it can be costly to observe," says Webb. For example, drilling multiple wells diggin' in DROUGHT Industry Report S'no Water How melting snow affects underground water reserves LET IT SNOW Researchers wonder whether snowpack in ranges like the Sierra Nevada will be sufficient to alleviate the stress recent droughts have placed on agriculture in the West. IN TOO DEEP Researcher Ryan Webb digs a snow pit to collect data at a research site in northwestern Colorado. Photo by Niah Venable