The University of Vermont is spearheading a major new research initiative aimed at better understanding how snowfall shapes the region’s mountains, water resources, and winter recreation economy, backed by a $5.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
UVM will receive $3.3 million of the award, with the University of New Hampshire receiving $2.6 million as a key collaborator. The project also draws in the University of Maine, Vermont State Lyndon, and seven other regional institutions, bringing the total partnership to eleven organizations.
Known as Snow STORE, an acronym for Science and Technology for Operations, Research, and Economic Development in Northern New England, the initiative seeks to close a long-standing gap in snow science. While western states have historically dominated snowpack research in the U.S., northern New England has lacked a standardized, automated monitoring network capable of tracking how snow accumulates, changes, and affects both ecosystems and the region’s multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation industry.
“For decades, western states have dominated snow research in the United States,” said Keith Jennings, the project’s principal investigator and a snow monitoring and modeling expert at UVM’s Water Resources Institute. “This investment from NSF will supercharge northern New England snow studies.”
Researchers plan to install new snow monitoring equipment at sites across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, including established research locations like Mount Washington Observatory and popular ski destinations such as Stowe Mountain Resort and Sugarloaf Mountain. The effort will also expand existing weather stations at UVM affiliated sites including Jericho Research Forest, Mt. Mansfield, and Sleepers River Research Watershed, while UNH extends its work with Wildcat Mountain Resort and Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.
Elizabeth Burakowski, a research associate professor of Earth sciences at UNH, said the new infrastructure will replace much of the manual measurement historically used to track snowpack.
“Typically, snow measurements are taken by hand, so these new monitors will allow for more comprehensive and continuous measurements to gain a better understanding of change, provide data and a dashboard, and help forecast a wide variety of activity with our rivers, forests, and overall flooding incidents,” Burakowski said.
The project is organized around four core goals: improving snow and runoff modeling, strengthening situational awareness of mountain weather, delivering real time data to decision-makers, and supporting the outdoor recreation economy. Organizers say the ultimate aim is to create a centralized, real time source of snow and weather data that ski resorts, forecasters, and emergency planners can all rely on.
That data is expected to help resort operators fine-tune snowmaking strategies, give visitors better tools for planning outdoor activities, and help communities prepare for winter weather hazards such as flooding.
The project’s partners span government, industry, and nonprofit sectors, including Ski Vermont, Ski New Hampshire, and Ski Maine Association; state outdoor recreation offices in all three states; the National Weather Service’s Burlington office and Northeast River Forecast Center; the Appalachian Mountain Club; and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science.
Jennings’ UVM team includes Patrick Clemins of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, Joshua Benes of the Water Resources Institute, and M. Salim Udden and Kimberly Coleman of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources.
The funding comes through NSF’s EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement program, which supports partnerships between government, higher education, and industry to build lasting research capacity in states that have historically received less federal science funding.
