Marianne Cowherd

Department of Earth Sciences · Montana State University

We study climate science, the cryosphere, and hydrology.

Our group works on nonstationarity in snow and water systems, both the problems it causes and the potential solutions. Specific topics include the atmospheric drivers of snow droughts, post-fire hydrology, and machine learning for snow observation.

We are based in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University and are friends of the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory.

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Research

We study how snow and water systems are changing, the problems that change causes, and the potential solutions, in particular how nonstationarity affects environmental observations and our ability to understand change.

Map of snow cover change around the Caldor Fire burn scar and Lake Tahoe
Ecohydrology · 2026

Snow after megafire

Observations across the 2021 Caldor Fire burn scar show how vegetation loss and topography control where snow accumulates and how fast it melts after a megafire.

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Snow pillow locations across the western United States with downscaled climate projections
Communications Earth & Environment · 2024

Climate-resilient snowpack estimation

Warming will erode the ability of today's snow stations to represent the western United States snowpack. Pairing stations with machine learning keeps snow estimates reliable through the end of the century.

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Global snow water equivalent index declining from 1850 to 2100 under two emissions scenarios
Environmental Research Letters · 2023

Global snow drought, 1850–2100

In climate simulations spanning 1850 to 2100, snow droughts become more frequent and more severe, increasingly driven by warm temperatures rather than dry winters.

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Sky-to-stream measurement system among snow-covered trees at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory
BAMS · 2026

A modern snow laboratory

The Central Sierra Snow Laboratory has measured Sierra Nevada snow since 1946. New instrumentation, including a sky-to-stream measurement system, readies it for its next chapter.

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News

Group

Current members

Marianne Cowherd, PhD

Assistant Professor

I study climate science and the cryosphere. Most of my work deals with nonstationarity in snow and water systems, both the problems this causes and the potential solutions. Specific topics include the atmospheric drivers of snow droughts, post-fire hydrology, and machine learning applications in snow pattern repeatability shift. I am generally interested in how nonstationarity impacts environmental observations and in particular our ability to understand change.

I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I earned undergraduate and masters degrees at Stanford University as part of the Bob & Norma Street Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, where I worked on oscillatory wave-current boundary layers. I earned my PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, where I was a DOE Computational Sciences Graduate Fellow. I am an affiliate at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory. I enjoy running, soccer, the outdoors, and word games.

Prospective students and postdocs

I am not currently recruiting graduate students to join the group. Postdocs interested in developing funding applications together, please email me with your CV and a one-page description of your research interests, your goals, and how your background relates to work done in the lab. Current MSU undergraduates interested in research for credit or pay are welcome to email me or come to office hours.

Teaching

Publications

See Google Scholar for a complete list.