May 13 - Orography as a barrier and a visit from a mountain reporter

Storms not what we expected...

The forecast on May 12th, with emphasis using the GEM 2.5 had us excited about a transition event from rain to snow on the Fortress side and some rain expected on the Nipika side. Teams were organized on both sides and were told to wake up at 4 AM to check our updated weather briefing on slack. Here is what our discussions on slack looked like:

 "Pcp forecast from GEM2.5 looks good, current radar showing patchy pcp in southern BC moving towards the divide, will re-evaluate in 2 hours" - Professor Déry

"Hilary and I suggest being on site by 0530  MDT. GEM 2.5 shows heavier pcp beginning at 6 AM MDT. Radar showing light precip (trace amounts) around Nipika area moving E. Trace precip to arrive at Fortress ~0445 MDT. Storm to end ~0900 MDT" - Juris 

NIPIKA
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Cloud clears over the course of the morning

Hadleigh and André arrived at Nipika at 1130 UTC, after negotiating the forestry road and the early start of logging trucks on Settlers road. No precipitation was observed aside from two 1 minute episodes of exceptionally light drizzle. It appeared that precipitation was possibly falling onto the surrounding hills but resulting in virga above the Nipika site in the bottom of the valley.

The highlight of the morning was observing the clearing of the high cloud to the west and bright blue of the morning sky. 

-Andr​é
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Field Participants: Hadleigh Thompson & André Bertoncini

FORTRESS
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No precipitation 

Aurélie & Charlie headed out to Fortress to be on site for 1130 UTC as suggested by Hilary and Juris. No precipitation was observed for the entire duration at Fortress, and they left at 1500 UTC to head to Fortress Junction Service (FJS) to download data. 

The Strathmore radar shed some light on the importance of orography. From 1330 UTC to 1440, it appeared that the continental divide acted as a barrier for systems to move over to the eastern side, whereby the radar did not detect any precipitation on the eastern side of the divide near Fortress Mountain. Perhaps it was moving eastward, but was drying and warming as it moved down the leeside of the divide. The lack of precipitation was a bit disappointing, however very neat to see how important orographic features are to localized precipitation. 

Hilary and Juris had the pleasure of showing Lynn Martel, a mountain writer focused on stories of people in the mountains, around our Fortress field sites. The three of us intercepted Aurélie and Charlie at FJS and we took turns explaining the various instruments used to understand precipitation events. We also discussed what we do as field researchers and explained how our project was a comparative study between two major areas; at Nipika Mountain Resort on the western side and Fortress area on the eastern side. 

Aurélie and Charlie headed back to BGI after a long morning, while Hilary, Lynn and Juris drove up Fortress Mountain to give Lynn a tour of our trailer setup, macrophotography setup, and the rest of the instruments used for SPADE. Sun was shining with cumulus clouds overhead. Around 1800 UTC, the three women headed down the mountain and returned to BGI. 

​-Juris

Field Participants: Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe, Charlie Hébert-Pinard, Juris Almonte & Hilary Smith

Thank you to Lynn for joining us in the field and for taking an interest in our field project and for writing an article on SPADE on the Rocky Mountain Outlook. Stay tuned!

For more information on Lynn Martel and her projects check out: http://lynnmartel.ca/

Nipika

View from the field site

Fortress