Topic: Where To Purchase Snow Depth Stake

[Central Maine Weather]

Hi all,
   I recently purchased another webcam (just awaiting its shipment) to use primarily as a snow depth monitoring camera. I will have it facing my snow depth stake so that I can view the snow depth using the cameras software and incorporate the cam image onto my website.

  I have a homemade snow depth stake driven into the ground currently which is suitable for my current setup of manually viewing it, but I’m looking at getting a much better (easier to read) snow depth stake to put in front of the camera. I’m looking for one like the one I have in the attached image, ideally one that goes to 4’ or 5’ depth for those snowier years we have here in Maine. I can’t seem to find where to buy one of these? I can only find ones that aren’t as appealing to me on sites such as amazon, ambient weather, etc.

  Any suggestions as to what to purchase and where to purchase would be greatly appreciated! Or maybe somebody has a suggestion as to what materials to use to make a much nicer looking homemade snow depth stake than the current homemade one I have.

   Thanks in advance!
      - Matt

[the beteljuice]

Try searching for a surveyors rod instead. You can get them upto nine feet (four feet above your camera  ) All you'd have to do is attach it to some support / stake.

[Central Maine Weather]

Great! Thanks so much! I’m trying to find one that is solid white with black numbers but may have to settle for this newer style such as the ones you provided in the links. They’re not that bad, just not as simple as I was looking for. I’m going to check into the surveyor rod idea as well.

[mcrossley]

Try a search for "water depth gauge board"?

[Central Maine Weather]

Try a search for "water depth gauge board"?

Yes! That’s more along the lines of what I’m looking for to use for snow depth! Something easily readable when in the webcam image. Something with the black numbers on a white background to prevent melting of the snow immediately around the stake itself. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Central Maine Weather]

Well I finally received my webcam I ordered as a secondary cam to use for snow depth monitoring here at my station in Leeds, Maine. I had a chance to set it up yesterday and ended up making a new snow depth stake for better viewing from the camera instead of purchasing one because I couldn’t quite find what I was looking for so I figured I’d just make one the way I wanted it. Check it out and let me know what you think!

https://monumenthillweather.webs.com/

Follow the above link to my website and then go to my snowfall page to view it.
After just over an inch of rain last night our snowpack took a big hit, dropping about half a foot. It’s like 8” of slush now with temps around 40F at the moment.
   - Matt

[DaleReid]

I like the cameras' views.

One comment that even on a 15" laptop, the inches marks are still difficult to see, sort of like the people making signs for garage/rummage/thrift sales writing on a big piece of paper with a ball point pen or narrow thickness magic marker.

I wonder if you could make the body of some of those numbers thicker, not necessarily bigger but more bold.  Not every one but perhaps every 5 or so, and those fiducial marks also bolder, thicker?

It would make it much easier for those occasional visitors to read without having to work at it?

Otherwise this might be a good way to get snow depths for reports, although not automatically ingested into our web pages. 

Does the camera have an IR light so that night time checks on snow depths could be done for the 10 or 11 pm news reports some of us contribute to?

How far from the gauge is the camera?  Would heavier snows tend to obscure the view on a static image?

This looks good and may be an update to my stations this summer in prep for next fall/winter.   Dale

[Central Maine Weather]

Thanks! Yes I'm anxious to get a good snowfall now!

I agree about making the inch lines bolder. I actually was going to do that this time around but was too anxious to get it out there (plus with this thaw we are in right now I figured it was now or never to get the metal stake I have it connected to in our frozen ground. Lol!). Very good suggestion though and definitely something I'll likely do during the summer before I get it back out there for next snow season. I did notice that if you right click on the webcam image itself and select 'open image in new tab' it will pull up a larger version of the image with the option to zoom in a bit, which definitely makes it easier to see. I still like the suggestion for next season however! 

I plan to use it to monitor snowfall and snow depth on top of doing my normal measurements with the ruler/yard stick each time it snows. It's kind of like a back up monitoring method for those times when I'm not home or not able to get out there right away to take measurements.

The camera does have an IR light so it should be viewable at night as well. I'm actually anxious to see how it looks at night when it gets dark later this evening. My guess is the bold line concept will come into play more so at night with the IR vision, but I guess we'll see later today!

The gauge is roughly 10 ft from the camera, and is not zoomed in at all so for this reason I believe it should still be very viewable during snowfall events even on a static image. Again with this point however it'll be a 'time will tell' kind of thing because I have yet to see how it actually looks with this new setup during snowfall.

Thanks Dale for the comments and suggestions! Much appreciated!
   - Matt

[DaleReid]

Stanley Kubrik and Arthur Clarke had their black monolith, your stake turns white after dark!

[Notsorusty]

I just looked now and unfortunately it looks like your IR lights are blasting out the lettering on the board. I am not sure how the lights work but maybe turning the board on a slight angle might reduce the direct blow back from the lights. Maybe experiment with a few different angles to see what might work. I didn't see your daytime shot but that should also be a consideration if turning the board works at night.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[Central Maine Weather]

Yupp, looks like the IR is quite a bit intense off of the white board...

I just looked now and unfortunately it looks like your IR lights are blasting out the lettering on the board. I am not sure how the lights work but maybe turning the board on a slight angle might reduce the direct blow back from the lights. Maybe experiment with a few different angles to see what might work. I didn't see your daytime shot but that should also be a consideration if turning the board works at night.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Thanks for the suggestion! I will definitely try this out when I get the chance. In the meantime I am going to experiment around with the settings in the camera itself to see if I can get it at least a little bit better. Definitely a learning curve! Thanks for all the suggestions as always!
   - Matt

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

https://www.ourspecialnet.com/Weather/FrankfortWeather-SnowCam-Revisit-October-2018/

[Central Maine Weather]

https://www.ourspecialnet.com/Weather/FrankfortWeather-SnowCam-Revisit-October-2018/

Nice! Very good info! Thanks for sharing.

[wxthomson]

this is what I use.
Unfortunately, they seem to be sold out right now.

https://weatheryourway.com/collections/other-weather-observer-supplies/products/snow-depth-gauge

 

[Central Maine Weather]

this is what I use.
Unfortunately, they seem to be sold out right now.

https://weatheryourway.com/collections/other-weather-observer-supplies/products/snow-depth-gauge

 

I found that one in my searches as well but did notice it is sold out. Bummer. Looks like a nice one too. Oh well maybe in the near future it’ll be back in stock.

[Cutty Sark Sailor]

this is what I use.
Unfortunately, they seem to be sold out right now.

https://weatheryourway.com/collections/other-weather-observer-supplies/products/snow-depth-gauge

 

I found that one in my searches as well but did notice it is sold out. Bummer. Looks like a nice one too. Oh well maybe in the near future it’ll be back in stock.

She runs out of that production most every year at this time.  That is the same stick in my above link,
https://www.ourspecialnet.com/Weather/FrankfortWeather-SnowCam-Revisit-October-2018/
and there is a very good reason why it's mounted with support, so double check that link.
If you send an email to cocorahs@weatheryourway.com, Lucy will give you anticipated status.
You might also check out this stainless, calibrated in tenths, stick... though not designed for 'yard' mount.https://weatheryourway.com/collections/other-weather-observer-supplies/products/official-snow-ruler

[Central Maine Weather]

Here is the snow depth stake during the day with us finally getting some winter precipitation (although it is mostly sleet and freezing rain currently with a change over back to snow hopefully later today). For anyone wondering, in order to attack the whitewashing effect of the IR lights at night, all I did was change the angle of the camera a bit. The numbers on the top half of the board are still not visible at night, but you can see the bottom half where the snow line is which is what is important I guess.
   - Matt

[DaleReid]

Looks good.  Very readable now.  Get a small blizzard (not a Dairy Queen) to test it with heavier snow.

I'll look tonight to see how it is showing up.  Fiddling around gets the job done.

[Central Maine Weather]

It sure does! Yes I’m here waiting for a good snow now! I think there’s still some fiddling around to do for the nighttime image but at least the lower numbers are viewable at night.

[Central Maine Weather]

And actually both of my webcams are blurry right now due to all the ice build up on the lenses so it may look worse tonight than normal because of this. I don’t like sleet/freezing rain! Makes a mess of everything!

[Central Maine Weather]

Here it is at night! In addition to it being a nighttime image it is currently snowing about 2" per hour as the precipitation associated with this storm we are having has switched back over to snow from the sleet and freezing rain we were seeing earlier. Looks like the image is coming in pretty good even with a bit of ice glaze on the camera lens. 

Its definitely not perfect, but probably as good as its going to get for the setup I've got.
   - Matt

[Notsorusty]

It is more better now.   

[Central Maine Weather]

It is more better now.   

Definitely much better! Thanks for your tips! 

[ValentineWeather]

This one works pretty well with IR light and doesn't heat up as much as the solid units and melt away at the base.

https://www.amazon.com/38-5-Inch-Foot-Snowflake-Gauge/dp/B003OHAJJS/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=yard+snow+gauge&qid=1581152667&sr=8-7

Here it is.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWSPSJbjqE8[/youtube]

[Central Maine Weather]

This one works pretty well with IR light and doesn't heat up as much as the solid units and melt away at the base.

https://www.amazon.com/38-5-Inch-Foot-Snowflake-Gauge/dp/B003OHAJJS/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=yard+snow+gauge&qid=1581152667&sr=8-7

Here it is.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWSPSJbjqE8[/youtube]

Yes, I figured using one like that with the “hollow” structure where just the numbers are cut out  would be the best way to go for IR purposes. Maybe something for me to look at down the road.