PLYMOUTH, N.H. (WCAX) – Plymouth State University is developing a tool to track regional changes in winter precipitation and protect communities from the aftermath.
As temperatures skyrocketed outside this summer, David Zywiczynski sat indoors sorting regional snow data.
“I have Excel spreadsheets that are, you know, 90,000 rows or something like that just for one state. And it’s because there’s just so much data,” said Zywiczynski.
The Plymouth State University grad student wields a master list of century-old info on snowpack, which are layers of snow that compile over time due to below freezing temperatures.
He says no one has studied how climate change impacts the northeast’s snowpack until now.
“We have temperature averages and we have precipitation averages that you see on the news all the time. We don’t have anything for snowpack,” said Zywiczynski.
The university just received $192,000 from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to launch the snowpack study.
Zywiczynski, alongside research associate professor Eric Kelsey, will create the nation’s first snowpack drought index which compares depth and water content changes over time.
“We’ll actually be able to say, ‘Hey, right now there’s only 4 inches of snow on the ground. That’s only about 10% of normal, and that is unusual,” said Kelsey.
Kelsey says the comparison is critical for industries that depend on snowpack and the people who suffer when it melts and triggers floods.
“We can then say, ah, about this much should melt out, and given where the river stages are currently, this is what we can expect,” said Kelsey.
Once it’s done, groups like the NOAA and the National Weather Service will use the index for modeling and forecasts – something aspiring meteorologist Zywiczynski holds near and dear.
“You can look back and say, you know, I made a difference in the meteorology community,” he said.
The university must complete the index by April 2026. The team says they hope to eventually expand the index to the mid-Atlantic.