The snow model within NWSRFS is the snow accumulation and
ablation model (Snow-17) developed by Anderson [1973].  Snow-17
is a conceptual model of a point snow column with an areal
depletion curve used to determine the portion of the area being
modeled that has snow cover.  Snow-17 uses temperature as an
index for the amount of energy exchange at the snow-air
interface with separate equations for rain-on-snow and non-rain
melt and for heat transfer during periods when melt is not
occurring.  The major Snow-17 parameters that are calibrated
include those that control the seasonal variation of non-rain
melt events, and areal depletion curve parameters.  Overall
results from Snow-17 compare favorably to those obtained with
a complete energy balance model except during unusual
meteorological situations such as periods with high dew points
and wind speeds [Anderson,1976].