General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

Snow ruler

Patents

N/A

General Description

wood

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

91.4 cm

Width

2.9 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Meteorology

Category

Precipitation amount, rate & duration measurement

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

MSC

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

1960's; this instrument was apparently in use for 35 years (Ref. 7).

Canada

A snow measuring device of a type used by the Meteorological Service of Canada to gather snowfall amount data across Canada. Part of a large collection of meteorological instruments acquired from the Meteorological Service of Canada (previously Atmospheric Environment Service) by the CSTM since 1967. MSC is the government agency responsible for collecting and disseminating meteorological data and forecasts in Canada. It was founded in 1871 in Toronto where it is still headquartered. The MSC was originally on the University of Toronto downtown campus but moved to Downsview in 1971 on land owned by UofT. The headquarters houses laboratories, research facilities and calibration and instrument maintenance facilities (now largely contracted out).

Function

A measuring device used to manually determine the depth of fallen snow.

Technical

Snowfall has traditionally been measured by its depth on the ground. The snowfall depth which is measured manually with a ruler is converted to its water equivalent by multiplying by 0.1 (i.e., 1 cm of snow equals 1 mm of water). Since this ratio can vary between 0.03 and 0.4 depending on the density of the falling/fallen snow, the quality of this technique is quite variable. Some automatic stations use an acoustic snow depth sensor which was originally developed by the MSC (see MSC020) and further developed by CS (Ref. 1). The Type 3 36 inch MSC wood Snow Ruler is listed in the Meteorological Branch's 1961 and 1965 lists of equipment in use (Refs. 3-4). By 1961 the Type 3 had replaced the Type 2 snow rule of the 1950's. Snow rulers were still being used in the 1990s (Ref. 2).

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

incised black lettering on one side reads 'DEP'T OF TRANSPORT METEOROLOGICAL BRANCH. SNOW RULER TYPE 3', with numbers and graduations for 1 to 36 inches in 0.2 increments

Missing

complete

Finish

coated light brown wood

Decoration

N/A