The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) has received a $6.4 million grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. These funds will be used to modify existing weather stations and build new stations across the state. “The one climate element that we have the least amount of data on is the moisture content in snow,” says Daryl Ritchison, director, NDAWN. “Every storm, you will hear about the total depth from numerous sites, but it’s not the depth but the amount of water in the snow that is the most important in spring flood forecasts.” Currently, NDAWN has 159 stations in North Dakota and border regions of neighboring states. One of the new features will be recording moisture content in every snow storm in areas where such data is available. “The goal is to monitor the total water inputs in the Upper Missouri River Basin, meaning not only the precipitation that falls from the sky, but also monitoring the amount of moisture present in the soil,” Ritchison says. “These variables impact not only flooding, but also drought.”
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