Dataset on new snow water equivalent

This dataset includes quality-controlled measurements of new snow depth (HN), new snow water equivalent (HNW), snow depth (HS), and snow water equivalent (SWE) from 41 stations located in Switzerland for the period from 2016-09-01 to 2022-08-31. These data are the basis of the following publication: Magnusson J., Cluzet B., Quéno L., Mott R., Oberrauch M., Mazzotti G., Marty C., Jonas T., 2025, Evaluating methods to estimate the water equivalent of new snow from daily snow depth recordings, Cold Regions Science and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2025.104435. Abstract The water equivalent of new snow (HNW) plays a crucial role in various fields, including hydrological modeling, avalanche forecasting, and assessing snow loads on structures. However, in contrast to snow depth (HS), obtaining HNW measurements is challenging as well as time-consuming and is hence rarely measured. Therefore, we assess the reliability of two semi-empirical methods, HS2SWE and ΔSNOW, for estimating HNW. These methods are designed to simulate continuous water equivalent of the snowpack (SWE) from daily HS only, with changes in SWE yielding daily HNW estimates. We compare both parametric