Steve Gray

1
Wyoming Monitoring Initiative
Steve Gray Wyoming WRDS State Climate
Office Dept. Civil Arch. Eng. University of
Wyoming
2
Primary Precipitation Observing Sites in Wyoming
20 stations with reliable daily reports and
long-term records
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Consequences of a Sparse Monitoring Network
Data biases make tracking short-term moisture
changes extremely difficult High country
conditions Vs. low country Wet-biases often
affect Wyomings depiction in US Drought Monitor
4
Pilot Project Improving Hydroclimatic
Monitoring in Wyoming

• Spring 2007 Legislature appropriates 434,000 to
  improve hydroclimatic monitoring
• Four Focus Areas
• Continuation of Soil Moisture Network
• Evapotranspiration monitoring
• Additional automated snow stations
• Additional stream gages
• Funds for purchase of equipment only
• No money for long-term operation and maintenance

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Hydro Monitoring Project
Expert Advisory Panel UW Faculty State/Feds
Equipment Purchases
SCO/ NOAA-NWS
Operation/ Maint.
NOAA-NWS And NPS
State/Local Government
Data Archiving Distribution
State Water Plan
WRDS
Ag. Community
Other Stakeholders
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Test Case East Entrance Yellowstone National Park

• Partnering with NPS and NWS
• Adding soil moisture, shielded rain gage, and
  high-rate DCP to existing NWS site
• Addresses multiple hazard-related issues
• Complements new existing infrastructure
• Important drought monitoring site for region
• Forecast point for Yellowstone Drainage

7
Legacy Wyoming Soil Moisture Network
Meeteese Field Office Best of the Old Soil
Network Stations
Manual rain gage
Electronics housed in Wal-Mart cooler

• No initial instrument calibration
• No soil characterization
• No subsequent maintenance or
• calibration

Courtesy Dr. Ginger Paige, UW Renewable Resources
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Legacy Wyoming Soil Moisture Network
Courtesy Dr. Ginger Paige, UW Renewable Resources
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Legacy Wyoming Soil Moisture Network

• gt 21 sites with high quality instrumentation
• Proper housings for instruments and logger
• Full calibrations
• Automatic rain gages at all sites
• Commitments for long-term OM

Courtesy Dr. Ginger Paige, UW Renewable Resources
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Pilot Project Improving Hydroclimatic
Monitoring in Wyoming

• Project Timeline
• Convened advisory committees spring and summer
  2007
• Identified target projects mid-summer 2007
• Equipment purchases fall 2007
• Calibration/testing winter 2007
• Installations in spring 2008
• Project Goals from Advisory Committees
• Address immediate monitoring needs
• Foundation for future development of monitoring
  infrastructure
• Priority given to projects that address multiple
  needs
• Hazards, long-term variability, water supply or
  compact issues, forecasting/modeling

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Thanks!
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• Contact Information
• Steve Gray
• Water Resources Data System, University of
  Wyoming
• 307-766-6659
• stateclim_at_wrds.uwyo.edu