Hydrology Bingo

Snow Throughfall + Snow (Precipitation)

The video shows snow falling as precipitation through a tree canopy, which is the definition of snow throughfall.

Saturation Excess Overflow

Saturation excess overflow occurs when soils become entirely saturated (typically by precipitation), and water collects and flows over the soil surface because there is no pore space for it to infiltrate into. The video shows a gravel trail at the mouth of Logan Canyon that became saturated during a low intensity precipation event and generated overflow.

Snow Accumulation

When snow falls onto a surface, remains frozen, and collects into masses of snow. Brrr.

Stemflow

When water is intercepted by a plant and runs down its stem.

Infiltration + Percolation

Infiltration is when water seeps into the soil surface. Percolation is the downward movement of water into the soil profile (shown as the water flows down the side of the glass jar.

Interception

When precipitation is caught by a structure (like vegetation) before reaching the ground or the channel. In this example, several logs have intercepted snowfall before it reached the channel.

Overbank Flow

Overbank flow occurs when the cross section of a channel is too small to hold the current discharge and water is forced over the banks and onto the surrounding floodplain.

Bankfull Flow

Bankfull flow occurs when the discharge in a channel fills the entire cross sectional area of the channel. This is sometimes considered to be the two-year flood frequency and largely determines channel geometry.

Infiltration Excess Overland Flow

Infiltration excess overland flow occurs when the rate of precipitation is faster than the rate of infiltration into the ground surface, so water accumulates, pools, and flows over the ground.

Throughflow

Throughflow is lateral movement of water through unsaturated soil that typically occurs along the contact of a less permeable material underlying a more permeable layer.

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