How many inches of pow did we receive? It’s what every powder-hound wants to know after a highly anticipated snowstorm blows through. But there’s another measurement to a snowstorm that has a more practical purpose—just how many inches of water are in that pow?
The snowpack and its water content is an important measurement for water management decisions throughout the year.
The standardized method and tool used around the world to measure the water content in snow was invented right here in Lake Tahoe on Mt. Rose over 100 years ago and the inventions came from an unconventionally qualified person.
“The interesting thing about Dr. Church is that he wasn’t a doctor because of science, he was a doctor because he was a classics professor…” Jeff Anderson explains, state hydrologist for the USDA’s Nevada Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Dr. James E. Church (1869-1959) was a professor who taught German, Latin, literature, and art history.
“But,” Anderson adds, “he also loved to be in the mountains.”
He had an inquisitive mind and passion to find a solution.
Church moved from Michigan to Reno, just down the hill from Tahoe, in 1892 on an offer to teach classics at the university there.
Historical accounts report that as soon as Church got off the train in Reno, he started walking down Commercial Row and past the many bars that were there at the time. To his dismay, a dead man was thrown out into the street right in front of him.
He later recounted the incident to his student, Clarence J. Thornton, who said Church told him he came “pretty near gettin’ back to the depot and gettin’ back on the train and leavin’ after that.”
Church’s move to Reno was amid the Lake Tahoe Water Wars, which consisted of a series of politically charged conflicts involving regulating how much water should be released from Tahoe throughout the year.
Homeowners on Tahoe’s shores were suffering property damage from flooding and wanted more water released earlier than their downstream counterparts, who wanted to ensure water was there for dry periods. Those operating the dam for electricity also wanted high water levels.
Mark Twain’s, “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over,” is often thought to be in reference to these decades long disputes.
Church and his wife, Florence Humphrey Church, cultivated a deep passion for the Sierra Nevada mountains after moving to Reno. As members of the Sierra Club, they would often publish their mountaineering adventures in the club’s bulletin.
With his inquisitive nature as his guide, Church followed his fascination with the mountains and explored the relationship between snow, its water content and how it supplied water for the Truckee Meadows. He knew if he could find a way to measure the snowpack in the surrounding mountains, he could predict how much snowmelt would flow into Tahoe, providing much needed data for water managers to make informed decisions.
He developed a series of methods and tools to explore that relationship.
The first was an observatory on Mt. Rose in 1906, which he established with another UNR professor, Samuel B. Doten. There they measured and recorded data on snow deposits, wind velocities and runoff.
In 1908, he developed a tool to measure snow’s water content. That’s the Mt. Rose Sampler, a steel tub in 10-foot sections with a serrated cutter on the bottom. Sending this tube through the snowpack cuts out a sample core. This gets weighed and converted into water content inches. The outside measures how deep the snowpack is.
His methods were so advanced, not a lot has changed about them. “I have a lot of respect for the vision Dr. Church had,” Anderson says, “to create a tool for measuring snow [that] has stood the test of time and continues to [be] a simple but effective way to measure the depth and water content of the snowpack.”
The Mt. Rose Sampler used in tandem with a snow course, a series of permanently marked snow measuring locations, allows surveyors to sample the snowpack regularly at given points in time. He developed this technique at multiple sites in the Tahoe region and in 1910, created the first Western Water Supply Forecast for Lake Tahoe with HP Boardman, a professor in engineering. The forecast predicted how high Lake Tahoe would rise in the springtime.
This solved many water disputes back then. Today, it also means Tahoe has snowpack measurements that go back over 100 years.
“The number of long term snow course measurement locations with greater than 90 years of data around Lake Tahoe and across the Sierra Nevada is unmatched by any other area in the western United States,” Anderson explains.
The advancement of snow surveying led to the development of SNOTEL sites, starting in the seventies, which are automated data collection sites measuring the snowpack, precipitation, temperature and other climatic conditions.
However, in the age of automation, Dr. Church’s methods and records are still heavily relied on today.
“I often refer to snow course data because it provides longer term historical context than SNOTEL data. This is especially true for the April 1 measurement date where snow course data provides more than 100 years of comparison.”
The oldest SNOTEL data in the region only goes back roughly 45 years.
“Using snow course data allows for comparison between recent big winters like 2023 and 2017 with other years with record breaking snowpacks such as 1938, 1952, and 1969 that occurred prior to the SNOTEL era.”
Church’s original snow course rests on the northeast side of Mt. Rose just above the saddle with Chocolate Peak. Though many SNOTEL sites in the region are located next to the original snow courses, the Mt. Rose site does not.
In order to keep Mt. Rose’s original course data congruent, NRCS snow surveyors continue to ski to and measure the Mt. Rose snow course each April 1, the old fashioned way.
“It is a unique honor to continue the legacy of snow measurements that were started by Dr. Church,” Anderson says, “I also have a deep sense of responsibility to make sure measurements are completed each winter so that the data record is complete and doesn’t have holes.”
Not only did Church help settle the region’s water wars, but he also became the leading snow survey consultant and traveled around the world presenting his methods and establishing snow courses in the Himalayas and Andes.
In 1935, Congress created the Federal-States Cooperative Snow Survey based on Church’s method and it continues today.
The art history professor had pioneered and carved out his own branch of science. For this reason, he became known as the Father of Snow Science.
Church traveled and consulted well in his late seventies. “And really by that point in his life,” Anderson says, “he realized that solving water disputes was a way to create world peace,”
The USDA’s history on its survey program says about Church, “Every hero needs a cause; Church found his in snow.”
Commemorations to Church are scattered around the region. The University of Nevada, Reno named the Church Fine Arts building after him. Ashes of both him and his wife were interred in the cornerstone there.
On the 75th anniversary of the Mt. Rose Weather Observatory, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names named the north summit of Mt. Rose “Church Peak” in honor of Dr. Church, complete with a marker erected on the Mt. Rose Highway. Church also played a part in establishing the Nevada Museum of Art.
His impacts on Tahoe and Reno are remarkable, especially in light of what could have been a twist of fate with his unsavory introduction to Reno.
There’s no telling where snow science would be if he had gotten back on the train that first day. Perhaps it was his fascination for the mountains that made him stay.
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024 edition of Tahoe Magazine.
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