Applications of the Hotplate Snow Gauge

The Hotplate Snow Gauge has been incorporated into many different applications, including airport weather systems (WSDM) and road weather systems to provide more accurate measurements of snowfall precipitation rates and accumulations. Unlike other snow gauges, the Hotplate does not require any special wind shielding to increase its collection efficiency. With the Hotplates small size and lack of any wind shielding, it can be deployed in nearly any location. For the airport and road weather systems, the Hotplate was compared against various wind-shielded GEONOR Snow Gauges at sites in Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota to determine its accuracy. This paper provides examples of these comparisons and how the Hotplate was used in delivering precise real-time measurements of snowfall rates and accumulations to end-users of the various systems.