More aboutÌýKarl Rittger

The CAL FIRE Nevada Yuba Placer Unit clears roads among other rescue tasks. Credit: CalFire/Flickr

Quenching the arid West with record snowfall: The tools behind snow data (NSIDC)

Dec. 22, 2023

The 2023 winter brought record snowfall to California, but getting accurate snow depth data over a wide area is not easy. Read about the challenges of garnering snow data and the tools behind the data. Among the experts consulted is Karl Rittger (INSTAAR Fellow & NSIDC Affiliate), who leads the Snow Today project, visualizing and analyzing snow conditions across the Western U.S.

Study authors Arielle Koshkin and Ben Hatchett measure albedo in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Photo by Anne Heggli/DRI.

Wildfires are increasingly burning California’s snowy landscapes and colliding with winter droughts to shrink California’s snowpack (DRI)

Feb. 2, 2023

A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that midwinter dry spells lead to dramatic losses of winter snowpack in burned areas of California. INSTAAR Karl Rittger participated in the study, led by scientists from the Desert Research Institute.

A cross-coutry skier navigates a Denver intersection on Wednesday, Jan. 18. Wet snows produced by an atmospheric river brought snowfall to the Rockies. AP Photo by David Zalubowski.

Snowpack improves as atmospheric river pours on Rocky Mountains (8NewsNow)

Jan. 24, 2023

Snowpack levels in the Upper Colorado River Basin have improved over the last two weeks, fueled by an atmospheric river carrying moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Karl Rittger is quoted extensively in this 8NewsNow story about Colorado snowpack and its impact on drought.