HyMet is a consulting firm working in water-related projects in the western United States and worldwide. HyMet's focus is on computer forecasting models for streamflow, snowmelt, runoff and glacier mass balance. Hydroelectric utilities, energy traders, and irrigation districts are the main users of the model's results.

HyMet's principal, Wendell Tangborn, has developed and refined a complex array of algorithms to forecast accumulation and snowmelt in remote, mountainous watersheds. The benefit of the computer-model approach to predicting runoff is that the input data are taken from readily available low-altitude observations of basic weather conditions, eliminating the need to measure snow accumulation directly. 

New - Seasonal runoff forecasts for the Columbia River at Grand Coulee Dam, The Dalles, Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River and Albeni Falls Dam on the Pend Oreille are available and will be sent on a weekly schedule beginning in December. HyMet forecasts have proven to be as accurate and more informative than alternative forecasting methods. 

HyMet is also providing weekly forecasts of hydroelectric energy generation produced at the thirteen hydro projects operated by Federal Agencies in the Columbia Basin.

For information or If you are interested in subscribing, see Forecasting.

Research

" The statement “glaciers are sensitive to the climate” was made countless times in published articles and the presentations we made throughout the 1960s-1970s, but little did we know just how sensitive they were. The now impending demise of many of them suggests glaciers are much more sensitive to the earth’s climate than are humans. We should have heeded their warning signals long ago. "

Website of USGS, Glacier and Snow Program of Alaska and Washington Science Centers: Reports on South Cascade Glacier, Washington.