Meltwater Movement in Natural Heterogeneous Snow Covers

Measurements of flow at the base of Arctic snow covers has shown that over small areas the flow varies from 0 to 240% of the mean surface meltwater flux. This variability in flow is primarily controlled by ice layers in the snow cover and is not caused by vertical flow channels with larger grain sizes. Day‐to‐day fluctuations in the flow variability were not sensitive to changes in snow depth or the number of ice layers but variations in flow were inversely related to flow volume, with lower Variability during high flow days. A multiple‐flow path model was developed to route water down independent flow paths, with each path carrying a different portion of the flow. Successful application of this model to data for a number of days from the Canadian Arctic and for 1 day from the Central Sierra Snow Lab suggests that it may be generally applicable to the snow covers in different environments.