Metrication of British Columbia snow survey operations

This paper describes various aspects of the metrication of snow survey operations in British Columbia as directed by the Hydrology Division of the B.C. Water Investigatons Branch. As with any large widespread operation, a change of this kind must be spread out over a period of time. However, as far as the public is concerned, the change was immediate, beginning in early 1976 with publication of a summary of all existing snow survey data for the Province, followed by the 1976 Snow Survey Bulletins, all in S.I. units.This paper discusses the choice of units, and the conversion of back data with respect to precision of units, conversion errors, and computer programming difficulties. The 1976 operations in mixed units are described, that is, the field measurements in the old system converted to published snow data and volume flow forecasts in metric.Finally, the changes in field equipment (sampling tubes, weigh scales, notebooks, automatic recorders, etc.) are discussed with repect to recalibratation of existing equipment and design of new equipment.