May 21 - Fast moving storm with solid precipitation

NIPIKA

The SPADE Queen has arrived at RHS

​At 0930 MDT (1530 UTC) Julie arrived for coffee at Nipika. We were delighted to have our first Zoom meeting with Julie in the flesh, no longer was she a voice coming to us from hundreds of kilometres away. After some great conversations, we departed for Nipika at 1115 MDT (1715 UTC), a convoy of two cars threading through a steady stream of ore trucks and forestry vehicles, rushing through work after the holiday weekend. After a great little tour of our trailer and our host of weather instruments, Julie joined us on our outdoor patio for some conversations. As a grand finale, we took Julie to see the now turquoise Kootenay River rushing through a canyon that is located within 200m of our site. At the end of Settlers’ Road we reluctantly bid farewell to Julie and Hadleigh as they drove off to BGI at 1300 MDT (1900 UTC). Stephen, Cécile, and Selina returned to Radium Hotsprings at 1330 MDT (1930 UTC).

-Selina

Field Participants: Prof. Julie Thériault, Prof. Stephen Déry, Cécile Carton, Hadleigh Thompson, & Selina Mitchell.

FORTRESS

​A quick and fast moving storm

​When we looked at the forecast last night, it looked like we would have the day to get prepared for an overnight event the next night. So after having a relaxing morning, we looked at the radar and saw that there was a fast moving storm from SE Alberta moving towards Fortress! At the time it seemed to stall along the foothills of the Rockies. An impromptu decision to head out to Fortress was made, given we had some other errands to run on site. So, we quickly gathered our things and headed towards Fortress. We conducted a carsonde on the way and managed to capture a transition region! Once we got to the top of Fortress, there was light to moderate snowfall. We started taking observations at 1630 UTC on May 21. We saw some very beautiful hydrometeors! There was no riming at the beginning of our observations and so we were able to see the details on the large (~ 5 mm) dendrites that were falling. Snow became light around 1650 UTC, however we still saw some large dendrites and were able to take a few photographs (e.g. side planes). Particles became very heavily rimed as the small storm progressed and we made our last observation at 1800 UTC. After downloading the data at the top, we did a carsonde on the way down and captured another transition region. We stopped at Fortress Junction to download data and then headed back to BGI to prepare for the bigger storm that is still forecast for tonight. Stay tuned!

​-Hilary and Juris
 
Field Participants: Juris Almonte & Hilary Smith 

Nipika

Fortress