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SWE

Snow Water Equivalent: What Is It and Why Is It So Important?

Skiing is a wonderful activity that wouldn’t be possible without snow. To put it simply, snow is very complex. It can do all sorts of things once it has hit the ground: turn into different shapes, gain and lose stability, and more. However, something that comes up a lot when talking about snow before and while it’s falling is snow water equivalent (SWE). Snow […]

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Clay Malott | February 24, 2021
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SWE: The Difference Between Blower Pow and Mashed Potatoes

SWE

If you’ve skied blower powder or struggled through thigh-burning turns in fresh mashed potatoes, you’ve experienced SWE. SWE stands for snow water equivalent. The SWE of a particular snowfall can make for an epic powder day, a struggle through heavy snow, or even create dangerous avalanche conditions. Basically, SWE can be thought of as the amount of water covering the […]

Lynn Barlow | September 5, 2020
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Measuring Snow Water Equivalent (SWE): A Job For NASA

Measuring Snow Water Equivalent

NASA is on a mission to accurately measure the world’s snow water equivalent (SWE), but why do we care? SWE is a calculation of how much liquid water is in a given snowpack or the depth of the snowpack multiplied by the density. If you are a winter recreator you are probably familiar with SWE even if you have never […]

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Alex Camerino | July 17, 2020
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