TY - Generic T1 - “Our Winter Snows Are of the Utmost Importance”: The Development of Snow Surveys in British Columbia, 1920s-1950s T2 - 88th Annual Western Snow Conference Y1 - 2021 A1 - Blake Butler KW - British Columbia KW - snow KW - Snow survey KW - snow-melt run-off AB -

In the early twentieth century, British Columbian engineers realized that snow was one of the province’s most important resources. It was nature’s principal reservoir of “white coal,” or snow-melt run-off, an important energy source that powered industries and sustained communities. Private industries and large communities conducted some of British Columbia’s first snow surveys in the 1920s and early 1930s. The provincial government began its own snow survey program – in partnership with these earlier initiatives – in the mid-1930s in response to the economic challenges of the Depression and in collaboration with American snow science research along the Columbia River. Snow surveys expanded to much of southern British Columbia over the next fifteen years. The program’s growth reflected the government’s belief that snow and snow-melt run-off could best be understood and forecasted through scientific methods. But, during this period, engineers with the province’s Water Rights Branch (WRB) struggled to generate accurate run-off forecasts. In the immediate postwar era, the program’s growth was driven by immediate concerns, government policies that promoted economic development, and the continued desire to improve forecast accuracy. Knowing the early history of B.C.’s snow survey program helps explain its importance in the province today.

JF - 88th Annual Western Snow Conference CY - Bozeman, MT UR - /files/PDFs/2021Butler.pdf ER -