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Snow accumulation and melt are the two most important processes contributing to the spring freshet, the main hydrological event in snow-dominated watersheds. The magnitude and timing of the spring freshet is determined by the spatial variability of melt rates and peak snow water equivalent (SWE). Although it is known that the spatial variability of SWE is controlled by topography and vegetation, their combined influence on snow accumulation and melt at the watershed-scale has only been addressed in a few studies. The high small-scale variability of a snowpack combined with the classical sampling technique along transects makes it difficult to estimate how much of the observed spatial variability in SWE can be attributed to topographic and vegetative controls such as elevation, aspect, wind, and forest type, and how much of it is local variability. A nested stratified sampling design was developed for the snow …