Snow drifting on phosphate mine dumps in southeastern Idaho

The snowdrift model developed by Tabler (1975) was applied to 12 sites located on four mine waste dumps and two natural areas in southeast Idaho where windward ground slopes ranged from 18-48%. The model predicts snow drift slopes as a function of catchment area topography. Those sites with steep positive, leeward ground slopes showed good agreement with the snow slopes predicted by the model. The predicted snow slopes from sites with slightly negative or nearly flat leeward ground slopes matched the measured slopes but underpredicted the depth of the drift. For the sites with steep negative leeward ground slopes the model predicted negative snow slopes while the actual slopes were measured positive. It was concluded that Tabler's model requires some modification before it can be used in the phosphate mining area.