British Columbia automated snow weather stations

BC’s ASWS network reports hourly and daily, and the province also runs manual snow-survey courses. The client serves both, plus the wind, humidity and barometric variables the ASWS sites carry — more than the snow archive keeps.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import easysnowdata as esd

aoi = (-120.5, 49.5, -119.0, 51.0)  # BC interior

The automated sites in the box.

inv = esd.stations.inventory(aoi, networks="databc", daily_only=True)
print(inv[["name", "elevation_m", "status"]].head(10).to_string())

                        name  elevation_m    status
code
1C44P          Paradise Lake       1640.0    Active
1D14P      Ottomite Mountain       1460.0  Inactive
2F01AP      Trout Creek West       1420.0    Active
2F03AP             McCulloch       1245.0    Active
2F08P     Greyback Reservoir       1550.0    Active
2F09P    Whiterocks Mountain       1800.0    Active
2F10P   Silver Star Mountain       1840.0    Active
2F18P            Brenda Mine       1460.0    Active
2F19P             Oyama Lake       1360.0    Active

SWE and snow depth through one winter.

obs = esd.stations.load(inv.head(4), variables=["swe", "snwd"], time="2023-10/2024-06")

fig, axes = plt.subplots(2, 1, figsize=(9, 6), sharex=True)
for station in obs["station"].values:
    name = str(obs["name"].sel(station=station).values)
    axes[0].plot(obs["time"], obs["swe"].sel(station=station), label=name)
    axes[1].plot(obs["time"], obs["snwd"].sel(station=station), label=name)
axes[0].set_ylabel(f"SWE ({obs['swe'].attrs['units']})")
axes[1].set_ylabel(f"snow depth ({obs['snwd'].attrs['units']})")
axes[0].set_title("BC automated snow weather stations, winter 2023-24")
axes[0].legend(fontsize=8)
fig.tight_layout()

The snow variables are only part of what these sites report. Ask the client directly for anything the adapter does not surface — flags, a native variable name, or an interval other than daily:

from easysnowdata.stations.clients import DataBCClient

records = DataBCClient().get_data(
    station_ids=["1A01P"], variables=["temp", "wind_spd"],
    begin_date="2024-03-01", end_date="2024-03-07", interval="hourly",
)