Wind-blown Snow as a Water Resource
Research History
Research Methods - Interstate 80
The Snowy Range, in the Medicine Bow mountains west of Laramie, Wyoming, was
named with good reason. Greater snowfall makes blizzards frequent and fierce.
Early highway and railroad routes skirted the north end of the Medicine Bows,
but the shorter route selected for I-80 cut through those northern foothills,
challenging Mother Nature (fondly called Ol' Ma by the blizzard boys). It
must have seemed to highway builders that Ol' Ma responded with diabolic glee,
making winter travel on the new route just miserable. Of course, those who
had lived in those hills knew Ol' Ma was only doing what she did every winter.
To Dr. Tabler, the struggle was an opportunity to use the concepts of snow
evaporation and tall snow fences developed on Pole Mountain.
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