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Focused on research with my mind filled with beautiful memories

10/22/2019

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It has now been more than three months since the SPADE field campaign in the Canadian Rockies came to an end. Since then, I have returned to work on my master’s project at the UQAM research office in Montreal, Qc. My research project is part of SPADE which was the study of precipitation in the Rocky Mountains. The main goal of my master's is to characterize the influence of atmospheric fluid dynamics on the spatial distribution of precipitation at the surface and in complex terrain, and at mountain-ridge and slope scales. A better knowledge of precipitation accumulation patterns, especially mixed and solid precipitation, allows better understanding and prediction of hydrology and water resources, for example during melting periods.
 
Specifically, we focussed on the influence of disturbed flows by obstacles such as mountains on the spatial variability of hydrometeor preferential deposition. The effect of precipitation types will also be investigated, as the drag coefficient and the fall speed of a hydrometeor depend on its shape and density. To characterize the atmospheric flow, we will conduct simulations of mean-turbulent and stationary flow around a mountain, such as Fortress Mountain, with computational fluid dynamics software OpenFOAM®. This will be combined with numerical models of precipitation trajectories and equations of motion for particles subjected to wind drag force.
 
Several datasets collected during the SPADE campaign will also be considered in this research. The processing of the data collected by the wind Doppler LiDAR HALO® will allow us to obtain wind speed profiles that we can compare with the numerical flow simulations. Also, the data from the optical disdrometer Parsivel® tells us the main types of precipitation that were observed by the instruments during precipitation events. This can also be used to characterize hydrometer types associated with different wind and other meteorological variables given by other instruments used during the field campaign.
 
Finally, since returning back home, I’ve been working a lot on the numerical processing of the LiDAR data. I have also worked on a literature review to investigate all the previous work that has been accomplished in that field of atmospheric sciences and to develop a better understanding of wind-induced processes that influence, at small scale, precipitation deposition patterns on the ground.
 
I am glad to work on a such motivating project that allowed me to discover the Rockies, one of the most beautiful regions of our vast country. I keep wonderful memories of that experience and of the extraordinary people I’ve met.
 
-Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe
Reference
Mott, Rebecca, Vincent Vionnet, and Thomas Grünewald. "The seasonal snow cover dynamics: review on wind-driven coupling processes." Frontiers in Earth Science 6 (2018): 197.
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After the storms have passed

10/8/2019

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As my colleagues from Fortress were packing up their snow boots, I was packing away my sunscreen. During our last major precipitation event on June 21st, we received over 19.0 mm of precipitation in less than 12 hours at Nipika. However, once the storm subsided at our site, we were basking in summer conditions, watching the hot sun chase away vestiges of cloud. Meanwhile, our colleagues at the other site continued to battle snowstorms. For me, this only highlighted the vital importance of studying weather on both side of the continental divide.

After the storms dissipated, I returned to Prince George to try to organize and compartmentalize the treasure trove of meteorological information that we had accumulated during the two months of the SPADE field season. Having unplugged the stream of meteorological data, we had to improve its universality; increasing our ability to share it with the rest of the world. Part of this process involved filling in missing time-stamps, cleaning off electronic errors, and removing the peculiar measurements that result from electronics being re-programmed. I also created documents that would give others the ability to comprehend the endless strings of numbers that we had created.
​
Having witnessed the beauty of orographic precipitation for two months, I have set about studying it. My pile of papers has steadily grown, crawling across the desk of my office, swallowing small books, and bits of stationary. I have also been collecting weather station data from various places in British Columbia and Alberta. I am hoarding it in various crevices of my computer, and incubating it for a beautiful metamorphosis in the near future, a confluence of different data streams that will enrich our understanding precipitation gradients over the continental divide.  

While working on this bigger project, I have been graphing information that I collected from a precipitation gauge transect on the Cross Resource Road. Currently, I am examining potential relationships between wind direction and precipitation rates. In the first image below, the graph on the upper left depicts average daily wind direction during a precipitation event and the graph on the lower right depicts cumulative precipitation amounts between May 12th and June 23rd, 2019, at four different sites near the continental divide.

I miss the SPADE field season, my kind colleagues, and their lively intellect. Excellent collaboration arose in response to inclement weather and unruly weather instruments. My favourite SPADE picture is emblematic of our comradery, a good conversation in the middle of a long day of weather observations.

-Selina Mitchell
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Time for some analysis

10/1/2019

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After two very intense months of the field campaign in the Rockies, it was finally time to cool down and go back to Montreal to start working on all the data collected. As my PhD project is about the mesoscale modelling of precipitation across the continental divide, the first step for me was to spot and analyze the main events that would be interesting for me to study. I selected 4 of them. The goal now is to make the synoptic analysis of these events, and characterize their common and uncommon patterns to see what conclusions we can take of the orographic processes that took place during this whole campaign. To that extent, I have been collecting synoptic maps, radar and satellite images, soundings, and trying to link all this information by going deeper and deeper in the atmosphere until finally studying the surface conditions measured by our weather stations in Fortress and Nipika, such as the temperature, the relative humidity, the accumulated precipitation and the wind speed.

On the pictures below, the low pressure system located in the area on June 21st brought the last and most intense storm for both Fortress and Nipika, with respectively 56 and 19 mm of rain collected. However it is interesting to see how drier and warmer the weather was at Storm Lodge in the very same time, even if located just in the middle of both stations !
It is a curious experience, working on the data we have been collecting all together for so long, as it reminds me of such great and intense moments we had while doing it. As an example, the picture below shows all the happiness (probably mixed with exhaustion) we felt once this last and biggest storm was declared over, and we knew at that point that the field campaign was a total success. That kind of moments brings a whole new dimension to our scientific work.

​-Cécile Carton
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Back in the Office

9/24/2019

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Our field campaign closed with an astonishing summer snow storm – yes, I said that right: summer snow storm. The storm happened on June 21, 2019, in the Kananaskis Region (picture below). Snow on the ground and total precipitation was 20.7 cm and 56.0 mm, respectively. This storm started as a snowfall event, then turned into mixed precipitation, and ended as rainfall. Although this is a fascinating phenomenon, snow on the ground melted fast and entered the atmosphere, soil, and streams very quickly, even during the storm. Note that one of our MRRs was installed at Fortress Mountain on top of the tower. 

After the field campaign it's back to the office, which is time to process and analyze the huge amount of data we gathered in the field. On my end, that means processing the data of our ground based radars, i.e., Micro Rain Radar (MRR). These instruments allow us to profile the atmosphere using radar beams that tell us about the size of the raindrops and snow crystals, which can then be related to the amount of water that enters our terrestrial hydrological system. By doing this, we are able to look at how well satellites, which have similar radar instruments onboard, are estimating precipitation near the surface. The MRRs also allow us to provide new insights on the algorithms that are used to retrieve precipitation from satellites, especially for snowfall. Ultimately, this work intends to improve precipitation inputs into hydrological models that predict snow on the ground and streamflow in our cold mountain river basins. The picture below shows the Fortress Mountain MRR reflectivity retrievals from that June 21, 2019, event.

-André Bertoncini
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SPADE work still ongoing

9/16/2019

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It's been about 2 and a half months since we decommissioned the field sites and ended the field campaign, but we are still hard at work on SPADE!

As the project manager, I am reviewing some article proposals and writing the data paper. I am also busy getting our dataset ready to be submitted to a data repository. 

Stay tuned in the coming weeks where we will feature the work that students have been doing for SPADE, as well as some of their favourite photos from the project. 
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Decommissioning the field sites

7/10/2019

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NIPIKA

June 26

We departed BGI in the morning and drove to Nipika to disassemble the field site. After packing up the instrumentation and cleaning up the trailer, we left the site to head back to Radium Hot Springs for one last night, and prepared for the long drive back to Prince George tomorrow.

Field Participants: Jeremy Morris, Selina Mitchell, & Prof. Déry
FORTRESS

June 26

With the help of Rob from ECCC and Cobb from the USask Coldwater lab, the team at Fortress was able to disassemble both the Fortress Junction and Fortress Top field sites in record time! We drove back to BGI with the instrumentation and packed up all the vehicles to head into Calgary to ship the items back to UQAM and ECCC. Miraculously, we fit all of the items into the truck and SUV's so that we only had to make one trip into Calgary. We unloaded and packaged the items to be shipped and that was that! The project is officially complete!

Field Participants: Juris Almonte, André Bertoncini, Charlie Hebert-Pinard, Rob Reed, Cobb, Cécile Carton, Prof. Thériault, & Hilary Smith
Nipika
Fortress
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June 20&21 - Summer solstice storm

6/21/2019

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Prologue: The SPADE forecasters had been waiting for this storm for at least a week when we noticed unimaginable amounts of precipitation on the long range GEM models. As the day got closer, the models still suggested large amounts of precipitation that at the time had a few of us a bit skeptical. 

Our team waited for the 12PM MDT GEM model runs which came out close to 6PM MDT and we made a 24 hour plan expecting precipitation to begin at 0100 MDT. We were a bit surprised when we checked the radar around 8:30 PM and saw the rapid speed of the storm to the North making its way towards Fortress.

Fortress team (which consisted of Juris, Charlie, André and Cécile) readied themselves for the early start and we left shortly after. ​Excitement and adrenaline was high, much like the first Calgary storm. We even had several laughs as we filmed a tour of our trailer. 

- Juris 
Nipika 

Unexpected deluge
​

Drove through extreme darkness and pouring rain en route to our site. Perhaps there was a tiny amount of solid precipitation mixed in with the rain at the very top of Sinclair Pass, a brief whispering of the start of a transition zone. Somehow, despite the difficulties associated with sliding a truck through a deluge, we managed to arrive on site a little bit early, settling into the fine art of tarp stretching that has been perfected over the last two months at Nipika. With a little tarp heaven at my disposal, I settled into my observations at 0700 UTC (0100 MDT). 

0700 to 1030 UTC:
I was on the first shift, filled with strange imaginings in the constant roar of rain on the tarp and on the roof of the trailer. This was the most ferocious rain that I have experienced at Nipika and I assigned it an intensity of 4. However, I have been informed that my view of precipitation has been Nipika-ized (diminished in relation to the real world). With the air temperature starting at around 7°C, solid precipitation offered us no respite from the constant downpour of rain. Along with my wild imaginings, the little HOBO tipping bucket kept me company, happily clicking away at me in the deluge. On several occasions I finally saw long-awaited bursts of northern lights, however this turned out to be my flashlight beam caught in the constant presence of rain particles and distant fog. At 04:30 MDT (10:30 UTC) just as dark blue was starting to creep across the landscape, I passed my observation sheets onto Jeremy and then passed out in the back of the truck. 

- Selina

1030 to 1330 UTC:
I arose from a short but restful sleep in the bed of the research truck to heavy and sustained downpours which began to taper off over the duration of my shift. At first glance, the rain drops were an estimated 5 mm diameter during the heavier periods. By the time dawn had passed, the storm had lessened in intensity to a consistent light - moderate rain with roughly 2.5 mm raindrops or smaller. This rain was fully continuous for the duration of my first shift, and the tipping bucket gauge could be heard periodically dumping out its 0.2 mm increments of accumulation. By 1330 UTC, I was grateful to be done my shift, as I was more than ready to go back to sleep.

- Jeremy

1330 to 1900 UTC:
I reluctantly dragged my warm body out from my sleeping bag perched in a pile of sopping wet clothing and hauled myself into the trailer for my 13:30 UTC (07:30 MDT) shift. While my body felt like the rocks and gravel beneath the weight of the Kootenay River in full flood, my spirits soared during my shift, because, like always at Nipika, our best forecasters, the birds,  presented us with beautiful songs for the end of the storm. This shift was a relatively calm one, as gentle steady rain, transformed into drizzle, and then into the occasional drip that has haunted so many of our observations at Nipika. Unfortunately, this type of intermittent precipitation leaves you wondering whether you have actually encountered rain, or pee from a passing bird. Starting around noon, the precipitation came to an end (after a whopping 19.5 mm over the course of twelve hours), and the sun started to worm its way out of the thick layer of fog that had hidden the mountains and obscured the sky for the duration of our observations. I crawled into my sleeping bag shortly after 1900 UTC (1300 MDT) beneath gentle winds and blue skies.

​I awoke to blissfully warm sunlight and a dry truck, a completely different world from the night before. Thankfully the gum stuck to the top of my head brought me back to reality.  Apparently, my hat had seemed like a reasonable place to store it the night before.

- Selina

1900 to 2300 UTC:
My second round of observations were far more comfortable as the rain had abated, and temperatures had risen with the day and the breaking clouds. Observations were primarily of the shifting coverage of cumuloform clouds above, and noting heights of cloud ceiling and fog levels on the surrounding mountains. The winds were generally light from the south and southwest, with periodic gusty periods. I was grateful for the change to sit in the occasional patch of sunlight to dry out from the evening prior.

- Jeremy

2300 to 0000 UTC:
Light convective gusts and blue skies characterized my observations between 2300 UTC and 0000 UTC (1700 MDT and 1800 MDT), the last observations of the day. Unfortunately, the same delightful winds that were chewing away at the last vestiges of fog that still clung to the mountains, and helping the little cumulus clouds along, knocked over a tarp board and smashed Jeremy's ukelele into several pieces. After the usual array of cheesy photo-ops with the instruments and some data downloads, we sailed off into a bright warm evening.

-Selina

Field Participants: Selina Mitchell & Jeremy Morris
Fortress

Rainfall warning
 

0330 to 0530 UTC: 
Juris and I left BGI in a rush as soon as we saw how quick the big cell was moving over the north of Calgary. We arrived on site and took the first observation at 0330 UTC, and Cécile and André joined us about 30 minutes later. We observed a transition on the way up about 20 meters below the site elevation. The snow intensity was light at the beginning and increased in the first two hours. The wind was calm, the temperatures around 1°C and the hydrometeors were mostly aggregates of variable sizes and were melting really quickly if they were not already partially melted when they fell on the ground.

- Charlie

​Various snow types were observed from 0530-0730 UTC with large aggregates, measured up to 4 cm, though it looked like larger ones occurred watching out the window. Precipitation observations switched nearly every 10 minutes, and the degree of riming also varied. Precipitation started unrimed and then switched to heavy riming around 0620. Perfect snowball weather! At 0600 UTC snow depth was recorded at 5 cm with a SWE of 5 mm and at 0700 UTC snow depth was 10 cm with a SWE of 10 mm. Precipitation intensity ramped up starting at 0710 UTC. 

- Juris

0730 to 0930 UTC:
After working very hard on producing a beautiful video presenting our wonderful shared house (that you will be able to find on Youtube very soon), and while Juris and Charlie were taking on the first shifts, André & I tried to get some sleep on the tables in the lodge, as presented in the pictures. As weird as it may sound it wasn't that uncomfortable, but it was still tricky to fall asleep as we forgot to ask Mel how to turn the light off... So when I got off of table at 0720 UTC to take over my first shift I was already pretty tired. But seeing a strong fog, an intensity of snow about 5/5, very large aggregates and a consequent relative snowpack got me to instantly wake up and get very excited about my observations. The 2 hour shift then passed very quickly. The wind remained surprisingly very calm, and the snow intensity very strong for the whole duration of my shift. I was able to take macrophotographs at each timestep, and observe different types of particles, from heavily rimed dendrites to large aggregates, passing by needles, columns and plates.

- Cécile

0930 to 1130 UTC:
This period of the storm was very intense, with snowfall varying between intensity 4 and 5, and decreasing to 3 and 2 when it turned into mixed precipitation. Hydrometeors were mostly heavily rimed dendrites, aggregates, irregular-shaped hydrometeors, graupels, with some occasional occurrence of rimed columns. During mixed precipitation hydrometeors were marked by graupel and rain drops. Although the weather was stormy, the winds were calm to moderate. Also, during this period it was possible to see on the radar how the foothills of the Canadian Rockies were blocking this event, pouring most of the precipitation East of us, however, we still got a very substantial accumulation of snow on the ground (19.5 cm until 1100 UTC).

- André

1130 to 1330 UTC: 
Mixed precipitation of variable ratio occurred until 1200, after which the particles were only solid and heavily rimed, mostly graupel. Even with the calm wind, the snow intensity was a bit more than moderate. Temperatures a bit over 0°C, the snow didn’t accumulate on the board for that period, it stayed at 19 cm but the SWE went over 30 mm!

- Charlie

1340 to 1530 UTC:
​Precipitation started with heavily rimed dendrites. Winds were calm and then gusty coming from the NW at 1410 UTC. Strathmore showed a line of precipitation making its way to Fortress, but strongest precipitation diverts slightly south of us (23-45 dBZ). Temperatures were above 0°C and most particles looked partially melted during observations. At 1450 UTC mixed precipitation occurred.

-Juris

1530 to 1730 UTC:
After a 5 hour beauty sleep in the lodge, that left me as refreshed as the Kootenay river during its coldest days of May, I bravely walked through a deep snowpack that had doubled during my break, to get to our now famous trailer. However my second shift was very different from the first one, as the precipitation intensity was now moderate, and as I only got mixed precipitation in the first part, generally with a snow ratio of about 5% only, and only rain in the second part. That being said I wasn't able to take any pictures, so you will have to blindly trust my observations. The fog was still intense but the site remained pretty clear during these 2 hours. On the picture I took at 1700 UTC, you can see very clearly the base of the cloud that passed over us at that time.

- Cécile

1730 to 1930 UTC:
This period was marked by an alternating presence of mixed precipitation and solely rainfall. Intensity was very light to moderate, and solid hydrometeors when present were composed of small ice crystals, irregular-shaped hydrometeors, aggregates that broke and melted instantly upon contact with the velvet pad, and partially melted dendrites. By this time of the event, Fortress Mountain was in the fringe of the storm, thus light intensity precipitation was prevailing.

- André

​2040 to 2130 UTC:
My shift started off very foggy and shifted throughout the hour with varying degrees of "fogginess". Winds were calm for the majority of the hour but from 2100 to 2020 UTC winds were generally northerly. At 2110 mixed precipitation (70% rain and 30% snow) consisting of partially melted graupel and rain was observed at the same time as the fog rolled in swiftly.

- Juris

2130 to 2230 UTC:
For my last shift, I sadly didn't get any precipitation, and moreover had to observe the snowpack gradually melting... But I suddenly realized that the observations I was taking at that time were maybe the last ones I would take for that project, so I tried to enjoy them as much as I could. This storm might be the last one to be part of the project SPADE, but it was definitely not the least!

- Cécile

Field Participants: Charlie Hébert-Pinard, Cécile Carton, André Bertoncini & Juris Almonte
Nipika

Fortress

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June 19&20 - Different conditions at each site

6/19/2019

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NIPIKA

Dry conditions
​

Quiet times on the western side. The team arrived on site at 2010 UTC to find dry soils and no rainfall till 2145 UTC when a few sparse raindrops fell. Since the weather wasn't providing much excitement, Aurélie and Jeremy installed an additional tipping bucket rain gauge in tandem with the Geonor weighing gauge. The group then put some time into redesigning the tarp setup in preparation for the coming deluge. Routine data downloads were conducted.  Some light rain occurred sporadically while the group was on site, however precipitation did not persist past roughly 0230 UTC prompting the team to depart. 

​-Selina


Field participants: Selina Mitchell, Jeremy Morris & Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe
​
FORTRESS

Wet conditions
​

Although the GEM2.5 model run didn't show any precipitation until 0100 UTC, the scattered cells we observed on the radar made Charlie and I leave BGI at 1900 UTC to arrive on site at 2005 UTC and take our first observation at 2010 UTC, after a data download at Fortress Junction. Charlie took the first shift. We arrived under  cloudy but clear weather, but only a few minutes later, we started to observe strong winds, and some snow for about an hour. Charlie had the time to observe graupel first, and then aggregates getting smaller with time. The intensity of snow was the highest around 2030 UTC.

The weather then remained clear until 2240 UTC, when I saw a grey cloud coming from the north progressively covering the sky, and then a gusting wind coming from the north and medium-sized graupel falling for 30 minutes. Then it got clearer and clearer again. In the end the snow and gusts went on and off for the length of our shift, but the intensity was the highest between 2240 UTC and 2300 UTC, the snowfall intensity was then about 3.5/5. From time to time we were able to take some pictures of the snowflakes, but most of the time it melted too quickly for that. We didn't observe more than graupel and aggregates.

​We left the site at 0600 UTC after a 10 hours shift, and let Juris and Hilary replace us for the nightshift.

- Cécile

Hilary and Juris arrived on site at 0600 UTC June 20. The drive to our site was very eventful with lots of wildlife spotted on the side of the highway, including what may have been a possible lynx or other large cat, as well as a bear squatting and eyeing us down on the right hand side of the Fortress road as we drove up! Charlie and Cécile caught us up on everything and left to head back to BGI to get some much deserved rest. When we arrived at the top there was very light snow and stopped around 0640 UTC. Visibility was clear and the wind was calm during that time. Snow started again at 0720 and became light-moderate with dendrites, small irregulars, and aggregates of dendrites. Winds were light from the south. Snow really began to accumulate at 0800 UTC and visibility became moderate, at times poor.
 
Juris started her shift changing the settings of the macrophotography camera. In the end, extra batteries were taken from the timelapse camera on the scaffold and used for the flash. Anyways it was too dark for the timelapse camera to capture anything. This solved the issue. Precipitation picked up around 1000 UTC with larger aggregates that lasted about 20 minutes. By 1030 UTC, precipitation had ended, agreed upon by songbirds as they were chirping away loudly. At 1130 UTC unrimed precipitation (needles, aggregates of dendrites and singular dendrites) amongst rimed precipitation were observed.

-Juris
 
When I woke up for my next shift, it was a foggy winter wonderland! I began taking observations at 1200 UTC. Snow started again at 1230 UTC with light/moderate intensity and particles were mostly dendrites, aggregates of dendrites, and small irregulars. At 1310, graupel was spotted in addition to the snowflakes. Charlie and André came to replace myself and Juris at 1400 UTC, and we headed back to BGI. On the way down we conducted a carsonde, capturing a transition region. 

- Hilary

André and I arrived on site at 1400 UTC, with the kestrel out of the car’s window and the cellphone filming the road. We observed an interesting transition on the way up in the precipitation type falling but also in the scenery. The first three hours of observations were pretty busy, with temperature around -1°C and snow intensity up to 4 (moderate to heavy). We took some nice pictures, but the crystal types were not very varied, it was mostly aggregates of dendrites (some large around 1.5 cm). An interesting thing that we notice during that time was that the wind was coming from S – SW all along the event, but the radar was showing cells coming from N. From 1700UTC, the intensity started to drop and the temperature increased. We had about 7.5 cm of accumulation on the board at that moment and at the end, it was entirely melted. So we left the site around 2000UTC, as green as it was the day before!

-Charlie

Field participants: Cécile Carton, Charlie Hébert-Pinard, André Bertoncini, Hilary Smith & Juris Almonte
Nipika
Fortress
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June 19 - Thunderstorm and mixed precipitation at Fortress

6/19/2019

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An eventful night at Fortress Top

Hilary and Juris arrived at Fortress at 0542 MDT. Skies were clear with most of the action occurring to the east and north of us. ECCC issued a snowfall warning for Jasper National Park. 

Shortly after arrival the newest GEM 2.5 runs came out and the amount of precipitation expected decreased substantially. Most of the precipitation was occurring further north of our location, where several snowfall and rainfall warnings were issued For Wednesday and Thursday, with the main event occurring Wednesday early morning from 0300-0600 AM. 

I (Juris) took the first shift, updating radar to see what was in the horizon. Observations began at 0750 UTC, when I noticed a cell to the west of the divide moving towards Fortress. At 0800 UTC it looked as though the smallest of particles were slowly falling, but being swirled around and staying suspended in the air for long. 
​
GEM 2.5 timing for precipitation beginning at 0900 UTC was very close and started at Fortress around 0940 UTC. A thunderstorm continued across the continental divide during Hilary’s shift with a few loud thunder claps with its passing. The thunderstorm lasted for approximately half an hour, and, at certain points, the timing of the lightning and thunder was very close together. Winds were fairy strong during the storm. The thunder seemed to be extra loud in the mountains. Definitely an exciting part of the night!
 
The second round of precipitation that GEM 2.5 predicted was also very close in timing and accurate with the type of precipitation, which was forecasted as mixed. At 1420 UTC Juris observed a couple of ice pellets that were translucent in colour and then shortly after what appeared to be liquid core pellets with a very thin outer shell. Graupel then began around 1425 UTC which both Hilary and Juris noticed to resemble a diamond, though this was short lived and ended at 1430 MDT. Mixed precipitation then began and we were able to get some pictures of graupel.  Winds were pretty strong, with strong gusts, with moderate visibility and precipitation was falling as strictly solid precipitation, with some occasional larger aggregates. By 1500 UTC the system had passed us, heading southeast. Both Hilary and Juris left shortly afterwards to head home to BGI. 

- Hilary & Juris

Field Participants: Hilary Smith & Juris Almonte
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June 17 - Convection near both sites

6/17/2019

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NIPIKA

Calm before the storm

​The team at Nipika make a quick visit to site in anticipation of the upcoming precip. Selina, Jeremy and Aurélie arrived on site around 1600 UTC to ensure that the instrumentation was functional; battery voltages were checked, the time-lapse camera SD card was switched and data were downloaded (Parsivel, MRR2 and CR1000X). As it was a sunny and warm day, therefore observations were not necessary, freeing the group to  further ensure that the Parsivel was recording spectral data, and that the geonor capacity was adequate to the end of campaign. While driving back to Radium Hotsprings, the Kootenay Valley was adorned with towering Cumuliform clouds, the harbingers of thunder and a sign of atmospheric instability.

- Jeremy Morris & Aurélie Desroche-Lapointe

Field Participants: Jeremy Morris, Selina Mitchell, & Aurélie Desroche-Lapointe
FORTRESS

Prepping for the next round

André and Juris left BGI and arrived at Fortress around 0930 MDT to run a few errands with the hope to catch some scattered convection that was mentioned during the morning forecast provided by Jeremy and Aurélie.

Skies were blue when we arrived and we were greeted by Mel, the Fortress custodian. He gave us some tips to get the generator running again and lo and behold a few more pulls of the line and we had it running!

Cumulus clouds were just starting to develop to the southeast when we arrived. Juris worked on getting the time-lapse cameras up, while André worked on the MRR.

André made numerous trips to the clearing at Fortress Powerline to troubleshoot with the MRR computer. The goal is to have remote access to the MRR2, which will be important to ensure the MRR is functioning properly. He is working with Dr. Nicolas Kinar, who is advising and helping troubleshoot through the network issues.

At 1359 MDT winds picked up and rain began shortly after. We saw the cell approaching on the Strathmore radar. Rain was near horizontal coming from the west, but the cell quickly passed lasting only 10 minutes or so.

Another round of more sustained precipitation began around 1500 MDT. Radar showed storm direction from the northwest moving southeast, but on site precipitation was from the SW. Precipitation consisted of mostly drizzle or small rain droplets, but with moderate winds, it appeared heavier. The parsivel showed droplet sizes around 1-2 mm.

Precipitation ended at 2340 MDT and we departed shortly after the full data download.

​- Juris Almonte

Field Participants: Juris Almonte & André Bertoncini
Nipika
Fortress
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