Winter
Ecology - Spring 2008
8:30a Weather briefing · Review Saturday's 'Lessons'
9:00a Lecture: Winter Climate and Snow Processes Mountain winter climates (light, thermal, moisture, wind regimes) · Dynamics of mid-latitude winter storms · Snowpack development, analysis of snow profiles · Deposition patterns and ecology · Avalanches and disturbance ecology.
& Readings:
- WEH Chapter 2.
- Scanned Fig 28 (pdf file, 6.5M). This figure on snow classification did not reproduce well in recent printings of WEH. This file is scanned from an earlier printing.
- Interested in more? LC Chapter 2 -- a different presentation, w/ overlap
- 2 Handouts:
- Climate and snow lecture handout. (pdf, 700k)
- jpg version of the figure Air mass sources and flow patterns influencing the climate of the US Rocky Mtns - from "The Southern Rockies" by A. Benedict and B. Bash (1991, Sierra Club Books, SF)
- Current MRS weather: Niwot wx stations, Saddle stn TundraCam
- NWS Forecasts: MRS, Niwot treeline (11,000')
- Nederland, Northern Mountains
- NWS Graphical Forecast: Cenral Rockies
- Regional snow forecast: Colorado & SW U.S.
- National context -
- ~North American Snow Cover: & Snow Depth [Northern Hemisphere Snow Depth]
- US current conditions: 4 panel [components: sfc T, moisture: dew point T, sfc pressure/wind, sfc pressure trend]
- Unisys National Forecast (including current Satellite and Radar)
- General atmospheric circulation -
- Unisys Mid-Tropospheric (500mb) wind and heights, showing position and strength of the mid-latitude jet: current and forecast
- Jet Stream simple graphic
- Colorado Avalanche Forecast -
- High elevation 24-hr weather record: Loveland Pass (table, graph), Berthoud Pass (table, graph), other stns. Note: data are in US units (°F, mph)
- Regional Wx & Avi forecasts: Front Range, Steamboat. Link to other regions from these pages.
- Windchill Chart: up to 60 mph - pdf (200k), up to 150 - Mt Washington link
- CDOTRoad Conditions: Traffic Cameras (SH72: Ward), Front Range Hwys
| Current
Conditions & Forecasts -
|
- Other Resources:
- Progression of Snowcover over North American, Winter 2001-2002: movie clip (mpg, 4M)
- Mountain Weather & Climate, by Roger G. Barry (2nd ed., 1992. Routledge, NY) [QC993.6 .B37 1992]
- Mountain Meteorology, by C.David Whiteman (2000. Oxford University Press, NY) [QC993.6 W48 2000]
- "Snow and ice crystals." by Y Furukawa & JS Wettlaufer. Physics Today, December 2007, page 70 (pdf) or <http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_60/iss_12/70_1.shtml>
- Bring: @Field Journal, compass, topo map, pack lunch. If you have: Hand lens, snow shovel
- 2 Handouts:
- Snowpack Profile datasheet (pdf, 60k)
- Niwot Ridge Sites (doc, 130k) - edit to add field collection sites as needed
- Related links:
- Mark Williams's Snow Hydrology course page on snowpack
- Niwot Ridge LTER Climate page
- see also other version
- MRS Mountain Climate Program
- Glossary of Snow & Avalanche Science Terms
- Depth Hoar - http://www.avalanche.org/%7Euac/encyclopedia/depth_hoar.htm
- Example snowpack analysis related to an avalanche accident report: Berthoud Pass - 6 Jan 2007 (CAIC)
- More:
- Climate station locations: Map, Elevation profile showing most stns
- Snowpack history = Stn C1 Monthly Snowpack Reports - Kurt Chowanski, MRS
- Results
- This year's results -
- Previous years' -
- 2/19/06 Snowpack profile datasheets (pdf, 900k), blackboard graphs (jpg, 1.3M - c/o Jyh)
- Photos of the red dust layer, 15-16 Feb 06 event: CAIC site, MRS & Niwot Ridge photos
- effects of dust layer continue through season: 30 April 06 snowpack report
- Spring '05 snowpack profile datasheets (pdf, 380k)
