Photo Contest 2023

Caption: Raindrops and snowflakes.

Bio: Betty lives in Calais, Vermont where she enjoys spending a lot of time outside in all seasons. Photographing loons and wildlife while kayaking on local ponds is her hobby. For this contest, the biggest challenge was trying to anticipate the start of mixed precipitation! She has a heightened awareness of potential weather impacts on preparedness and response to weather events, as she is a member of her town's emergency management team.

Caption: Looking towards the Carson Range from the Carson Valley between storms on December 28th, 2022.

Bio: Anne Heggli is a PhD candidate working at DRI. She studies the impact that weather and snowpack conditions have on the timing of rain-on-snow induced runoff. She uses this knowledge to improve reservoir operations and aid in flood management.

Caption: In mid-January, we embarked on an 11-mile ski tour which brought us to a small hut near the continental divide. Wasted from the journey, we went on a short tour and dug a surprisingly deep snowpit on a northeast aspect just short of 12,000'. Hopefully, this above-average year keeps our streams full this summer.

Bio: Riley lives and plays in Eagle County, Colorado where he works at Walking Mountains Science Center as the Community Science and Hiking Coordinator. When he isn't guiding others in the outdoors, he can be found recreating in the mountains or the desert of Western Colorado.

Caption: During winter at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, CO, the only mode of transportation is by ski, which is made evident by the snow piling up and burying entire cabins as the season progresses. 

Bio: Emilio Mateo is a Climate Science Fellow at Aspen Global Change Institute, where he pursues research on projects related to mountain hydrology, climate resilience/adaptation, and science communication. Emilio has previously conducted water resources research in the San Juan Mountains (Colorado) and the Cordillera Blanca (Peru). He has worked in educational and resource management roles at multiple National Parks, and is also an avid photographer, trail runner, skier, and triathlete.

Caption: This feels comfy!

Bio: Patrick Thorson lives in Incline Village, Nevada with his wife Elaine and their two huskies, Cara and Conrad. Patrick studied meteorology, and spent nearly his entire working career in the western United States, specifically in mountainous areas. When not submitting rain or snow observations, he loves doing anything with their huskies, such as hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, or just walking them around Incline and letting them enjoy the sniffies. He also likes grilling out and gardening!

Caption: Peppa surveys the snowy holiday scene

Bio: Karen has lived her whole life in the mountains looking at the ground (as botanist and backcountry guide) and sky (the mountains are so amazing day and night!). Her furry friend Peppa shares in their adventures and also loves both ground (‘great smells, mom!’) and sky (‘birds, mom!!’).

Caption: Frost on a windowpane.

Bio: Valerie is a medical coder, and lives up a dirt road in Central Vermont where it’s likely to be snowing when it’s raining down in the valley. Valerie actually took this photo with a macro lens attachment she found online for her phone, with the tool she has been enjoying taking close up pictures of snowflakes, flowers, etc. 

From our scientists: “Rain falling on snow can create a layer of crusty ice in the snowpack. This image of the snow-rain-snow layers (also known as stratigraphy) perfectly documents what Mountain Rain or Snow is all about – tracking the transition from one precipitation phase to the next.”

From our scientists: “This close-up image of frozen water droplets covered by recently fallen snow crystals is a wonderful chronology of the transition from rain to snow. If you look closely, you can see that the snow crystals are needle-shaped, which often fall during warmer snow storms.” 

From our scientists: “This picture may have captured one of the first snows in autumn. I love the way the image depicts the colors of three seasons – the white of snow, the deciduous leaves changing, and the green of late summer.”

The caption submitted by this observer says it all: “The flow of the Big Thompson River in CO is controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation's Olympus Dam, in winter ranging from 12-25 cubic feet per second. Sometimes the water flows over the top of the ice, forming a thick layer. Weak areas of the ice collapse during warm spells.”

From our scientists:  “The distribution of water after snow melts is very different than the distribution after it rains. This is because snow can do things that rain cannot, including be subject to movement by wind. The patterns of wind in this photo illustrate an important difference between rain and snow for hydrologic modeling.”

From our scientists: “This flooding event on the Silver Fork, a tributary to the American River, took place during the largest rain-on-snow event in the 2022-2023 season. The storm had a huge impact, and this photo shows the power of water when it gets this high. Snowpacks from higher elevations can melt as it rains, affecting lower areas near the river below.”