Snow Reporting Question

[wxman]

So, my practice is always to report my snow on the ground at the time I measure (no clearing or snow board for me).  Usually this is not a big issue but in a long duration storm like this one it could be.  Yesterday my snow max on the ground was 12" and this morning the total snow OTG is 13.5" BUT I know for a fact that areas cleared since my 12" measurement picked up another 3".  Would you report your snow total as 13.5" (the current OTG total) or 15" (the storm total)?  

[wdrag]

On 2/2/2021 at 7:49 AM, wxman said:

So, my practice is always to report my snow on the ground at the time I measure (no clearing or snow board for me).  Usually this is not a big issue but in a long duration storm like this one it could be.  Yesterday my snow max on the ground was 12" and this morning the total snow OTG is 13.5" BUT I know for a fact that areas cleared since my 12" measurement picked up another 3".  Would you report your snow total as 13.5" (the current OTG total) or 15" (the storm total)?  

15" if you report to the NWS.  .  CoCoRAHS is one ob only/day, but since you have two days and you state 12 on D1, and 3" new on D2, then thats 15, despite the lesser D2 SD(snow on the ground) of 13.5.  Does that work?  Walt

[wxman]

39 minutes ago, wdrag said:

15" if you report to the NWS.  .  CoCoRAHS is one ob only/day, but since you have two days and you state 12 on D1, and 3" new on D2, then thats 15, despite the lesser D2 SD(snow on the ground) of 13.5.  Does that work?  Walt

Thanks Walt, I understand.  I get that that 15" is the right number but I also have a (personal) hard time getting past snow OTG as my storm total.  It's hard for me to say that "we got 15" when the most snow I had OTG at one time was 13.5".  From what I can tell in the PNS' there is great inconsistency in what's being reported, with the larger numbers likely correct (absent drift measurements, of which there are plenty) with the smaller numbers being what's observed on the ground. 

[wdrag]

Cant answer.  I do think CoCORAHS is stable on DAILY snow depth...not necessarily total daily snowfall and so NWS 4 clearances/day or max SD is best in the 24 hour period.