June 14 - Scattered convective precipitation

NIPIKA

A beautiful, clear morning

After having an interesting sleep due to the thunderstorms throughout the night, the Nipika team, consisting of Juris, Selina and myself (Hilary), left Radium Hot Springs at the crack of dawn to make sure that we arrived on site for 1100 UTC. The roads on the way to the site were still wet from the storm and there were some low clouds in the valleys. Thankfully we beat the first logging and mining shifts and had an uneventful rest of the drive to the site. We arrived on time and started our first observation at 1100 UTC. There were a few scattered clouds in the sky and the sun was just beginning to rise. Temperatures were slightly cool and it appeared as though there could be a little fog in the area. We continued to take observations until 1300 UTC when it was determined that there would likely be no precipitation occurring and both the Nipika and Fortress teams could stop observations and head home. Conditions during those two hours were lovely because the birds were singing and the sun was rising. We could really feel the warmth of the sun once it got over the mountains. We stayed at the site a little later to complete a data download and work on a special project for YouTube - stay tuned! We returned back to Radium Hot Springs around 1430 UTC. 

​-Hilary

Field Participants: Juris Almonte, Selina Mitchell & Hilary Smith

FORTRESS

An uneventful day

Aurélie & I woke up at 2.30 MDT to depart for Fortress at 3.15 MDT. That might be the hardest wake-up I have experienced since the beginning of the project, it was just out of reality. The new model runs from 12 AM available at that time didn't show so much precip anymore, but we saw some cells on the radar that could definitely be interesting for our observation area, so we decided to go anyway.
On our way we experienced a very heavy shower, but as we arrived at the foothills of Fortress it was over, therefore we didn't do a carsonde. We were amazed by our sense of timing as we arrived at the trailer at 0359 MDT and were able our first observation at 0400 MDT sharp (1000 UTC). I took the first and, in the end, only shift.
At that point there was no precip at all, but a few minutes later a strong and sudden shower started, and lasted for 30 minutes or so. After that the weather got clearer and clearer. In coordination with the Nipika site we decided to stay until 7 AM MDT anyway, as the forecast was initially expecting a shower between 6 AM and 7 AM MDT, but it never showed up. I saw the sun rise in a very pleasant sky, a first for me since the beginning of the project, and it was amazing !
I woke up Aurélie, took a picture of the site at 0700 MDT, and we left so we could finally go home and have a proper sleep, before going to Calgary to pick André up at the airport - Welcome back to SPADE André !
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​- Cécile

There's not much to say on our side. Expecting precipitation in the afternoon, Jeremy and I left BGI around 1700UTC. There was rain occurring at that moment and for the first half of the road, but it stopped when we arrived on the field. After that we had some really light rain from 1820 to 1930UTC with a short episode of small hail at 1840. For the rest it was a beautiful sunny day, offering us a nice view in the mountain! Jeremy took advantage of that time to try fixing the generator, which was unfortunately still not working at the end.
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- Charlie

Field Participants: Cécile Carton, Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe, Charlie Hébert-Pinard & Jeremy Morris

Nipika

Fortress