Grandfather of the Snow

Dr. James Edward Church is a blue-eyed, twinkling man of 82 who looks like a rather hardy retired professor of Greek. That is just what he is, but he is better known as "the father of the snow survey" -the rough and rugged practical science of measuring the snowpack on high mountains.

In 1892 Dr. Church came to Reno to teach Latin and Greek at the University of Nevada. The classics were all right in their way, but the young professor felt the need of something more robust. One winter, on a dare, he set out to climb the 10,800-ft. peak of Mt. Rose, 19 miles southwest of Reno. He returned from the mission safe & sound, but fascinated by the savagery of the storms and by the "complete purity of the world of snow."

Glittering Peaks. Every winter after that, the young professor of Greek climbed the white Sierra, and he grew well known for his strenuous hobby. Soon both the weather bureau and the local power company were asking him to measure the snow that he found on the glittering peaks. The power people wanted to know how much snow water would foam in spring into the rivers and through their turbines.

Dr. Church found that measuring the depth of the snow was not enough. Some snow is light and fluffy, with little water in it. Other snow is tightly packed, almost like solid ice. So he invented his "snow sampler": a metal tube to be driven into the snow. By measuring the weight of the snow in the sampler, he could figure the amount of water that the snow would yield when it melted. The professor's simple instrument, invented more than 40 years ago, is still used all over the world. Power companies and other water users no longer have to guess how much water the snow will give them. By following the professor's rules, and adding other data such as soil moisture and expected precipitation in the spring, they can estimate the runoff within 5 or 10%.

Sweden to the Himalayas. In the last quarter century, honors have converged on the quiet professor. From 1933 to 1948 he was president of the International Commission of Snow and Glaciers. He was asked to help set up snow surveys in many western states, and in Norway, Sweden, Canada, Newfoundland, India, Switzerland, Russia, Chile and Argentina. His most difficult job was in the Himalayas, where most of the snow lies above 17,000 ft. He made the grueling survey, which would have stopped many a younger man, in 1947, when he was 78.

The professor is now retired; he climbs the high peaks no more. But every day he walks 20 blocks to the campus of his university, where he works at his experimental station. There are still snow projects that he wants to complete. First on the list: to check the survey possibilities on the headwaters of the Yalu River between North Korea and Communist Manchuria.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.