Before the ground freezes, I’m once again considering doing automated snow depth measurement at my location.
In the past there were discussions about using ultrasonic, temperature corrected devices. Some commerical units, such as the Campbell Scientific SR50 series, are available, and there were some home-brew setups, and now I see little Arduino devices for distance measurement, too.
Another route was to use a custom board from Porcupine Labs and a Fluke laser distance device to get the readings, with the laser not needing temperature correction, but oddly needing the be in a somewhat temperature controlled enclosure to keep it stable.
I’m wondering who has automated snow depth measurement experience, is it ready for this season or too much trouble to keep on line, and if you are using something will it interface with Weather Display?
How many users are there with this capability? What is the advice for Ultrasound vs. Laser?
Any other comments or encouragement (even “don’t do it, you fool, you’ll drive yourself batty!”)
Thanks. Dale (waiting for the first freeze and ground getting hard, since siting a post is much more fun when conditions are miserable out).
If you are thinking of the “SR04” ultrasonic sensor boards those modules are fun to play with but not suitable for this purpose. Maxbotix is the go to supplier for ultrasonic snow sensors. IIRC Serge is using one of their sensors.
There are also very cheap laser modules that were discussed here. Again fun to play with and might work in the dark but can’t handle sunlight 
There’s no free lunch in this application…
P.S. I always thought a snow depth sensor would be a great project to build, but it only snows every 10 years here :lol:
Niko:
Arrgh! Sunlight and lasers are something I’ve never thought about.
Maybe I’m back to putting on the boots and wading through the drifts with my ruler…
Thanks for the input.
Dale
The laser units that mikeym and others use are fine, but something that sells for a couple of bucks won’t do it.
Yes, that was the one I was thinking about trying this year.
It is an interface board from Porcupine Labs and a distance measuring laser from Fluke.
When I was in college, we had some Textronics and Fluke stuff. The Fluke was darned good for test stuff even as they were starting up.
I use the porcupine stuff and it works just fine. The official method is still a stroll in the snow taking a few measurements and averaging them. When measuring new snowfall each hour you clean a spot (on a white board), measure the amount that fell and clean the board off again. Rinse and repeat until the snow stops. Warning, it’s darn hard to measure new snowfall when it’s blowing by you at 50kts! In fact the official amount of snowfall is usually a wild guess made by the weather observer. A well trained individual but a guess none the less. So when you hear reports of 2 or 3 feet of new snow, take it with a grain of salt.
rick
I guess the snow pillow is one of the better solutions. The measurement is averaged over an area, and the result is directly water content.
Looks simple enough…build it yourself, add a webcam…presto… 
