snowpack · Pakistan
Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan
1 April snow water equivalent
Modelled demonstration series · not observed data
The population figure on this tile is not the valley, it is the Indus basin downstream. Snow and ice melt from these mountains provides a large share of the river's flow in exactly the pre-monsoon months when there is no rain and the crop is in the ground. Very few places convert a snow measurement into that many people.
75 years, modelled
Same reading, two normals
| Normal | Mean | σ | Pct | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951–1980 | 390 mm | −2.00σ | 2nd | 1 in 44 years |
| 1991–2020 | 342 mm | −2.14σ | 2nd | 1 in 62 years |
Today would be the lowest value in the entire 75-year modelled series. Past the series' standing low of 195 mm (1993). Nothing about the reading changes between rows — only the yardstick.
The season here
The Karakoram is fed by winter westerlies rather than the summer monsoon, which is why its glaciers have behaved differently from the rest of High Asia.
Where this series comes from
MODELLED SERIES — not observed. Parameters set from published Karakoram winter snow-water-equivalent climatology; lognormal transform applied. The 75 annual values are synthesised by the seeded generator. Population is a rounded Indus-basin water-dependency estimate, not a local one.
Every number on this page comes from a modelled series: 75 annual values synthesised by a seeded generator from published climatological parameters for Hunza Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan. It shows how anomaly reasoning works. It is not a measurement and must not be cited as one.
How to read σ
σ counts standard deviations from this place's own normal. The sigma guide · return periods.
More snowpack stations
Open Hunza Valley on the field →