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 !
​
​- 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.
​
- Charlie

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

NIPIKA

A bit of rain​

Jeremy and Aurélie arrived at Nipika around 1000 MDT and conducted a general site inspection to ensure the instrumentation was operational. Parsivel tests were conducted by obstructing the beam to force a response in the "pcolor" plots. Attempts at simulating enormous snowflakes using wood branches did not seem to significantly affect the velocity/diameter pcolor plot. However, when 2x4 lumber was positioned stationary between the heads, the corresponding timestamp showed no precip, as the laser beam was completely blocked. This indicates that the Parsivel filters out oversized obstructions which explains why the "branch" method may have failed to show responses.

Observations were then conducted from a cabin at Nipika resort (within 800 m of site) just prior to sunset at 1020 MDT. At this time, the sky was overcast with a light rain and negligible winds. Two rainfall events occurred overnight during observations. During the first rain event, precipitation intensity was weakening from 0510 until the end of rain at 0610 UTC. Winds were consistently negligible during the event. The sky was likely overcast for the duration of rainfall, however the darkness of night prevented accurate observation till rain ended and stars became visible.

Precipitation started back around 0840 UTC at an intensity slightly higher than the previous rain event. Rain intensities of light-to-moderate (1-2.5) intensity were observed, with very low winds.  Similar to the first rain event, precipitation rates weakened until the event ended at 1000 UTC.

Finally, rain picked up again at 1050 UTC at a very light intensity (0.5) and increased to a maximum intensity of moderate (3) from 1230 until 1240 UTC, after which it decreased to a very-light precip rate (0.5) at 1330 at which time Jeremy and Aurélie ceased observations to assist at Storm Lodge.

On the drive from Nipika to Storm Lodge the transition from rain to snow, characterized by mixed precipitation, was observed a little after Kootenay Lodge (1350m) on 93rd highway at 1428 UTC. The air temperature was decreasing as we approached Storm Lodge. Large aggregates of snowflakes falling at a moderate rate (3) were observed in very calm atmospheric conditions at 1431 UTC and 1372m of elevation. At 1446 UTC and an altitude of 1469m near Marble Canyon, medium sized flakes were observed. Upon arrival at Storm Mountain Lodge, heavy snowfall was starting to make driving hazardous and the team was happy to have arrived to support the MRR-Pro crew.

- Aurélie & Jeremy

Field Participants: Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe & Jeremy Morris

STORM MOUNTAIN LODGE

A very snowy morning

Jeremy and Juris arrived shortly after 4 PM MDT at Storm Mountain Lodge. We checked into our rustic cabin (Cabin 1) and talked to Cael the manager, and discussed our plans for deployment. He kindly allowed us to put the MRR and tipping bucket in the clearing in front of the cabin about 20 m away.

Hilary arrived not too long after. While Jeremy and Juris were working on getting the MRR, tipping bucket and temperature/RH sensor deployed. Hilary set up the time-lapse camera ensuring a good view of all the instruments and the mountains on the other side of the highway.  A few curious guests stopped by while we were setting up to come and chat; a great opportunity for public outreach and a way to share our pamphlets with others. Farmers from Australia visiting the Rockies took interest in what we were up to and the information we were gathering. This was very encouraging and a great reminder of how important this research is. We gave them a heads up that snow was on its way overnight and the two seemed excited and wished us luck!

We had the MRR pro up and running around 1800 UTC and changed the height above sea level to 1723 m at 1934 MDT. We were able to plug the UPS system into the cabin outlet and the MRR directly into the UPS system. This way we were able to run the MRR pro past the 14-16 h battery life of the UPS system.

Hilary and Juris started observations at 0700 MDT (June 7 0100 UTC). The beginning of the storm was slow with rain at 2010 MDT, and was intermittent until 2130 MDT where precipitation continued on steadily afterwards. Temperatures slowly dropped from 8°C at 0150 MDT (June 7) to 1.0°C at 1040 MDT. At 1050 MDT the observer made special note of heavy snowfall, and within the next few time steps, it was noted that the air was saturated, with temperatures hovering around 0°C according to the kestrel which we used to log temperature and relative humidity alongside the hobo RH and temperature sensor borrowed from U. Waterloo.

The snow from the MRR was first brushed off at 0437 MDT and was consistently brushed off afterwards. Although we did our due diligence clearing the dish, it was difficult to keep it clear of snow. 

Snow macrophotography pictures began at 0453 MDT and ended at 1116 MDT. A variety of precipitation types were observed, including columns, dendrites and plates, with rimed and un-rimed particles. Lots of aggregates were observed as precipitation rates increased and temperatures neared 0°C. At 0520 MDT a noticeable accumulation of snow was observed on the snow depth board, and by 0610 MDT 0.6 mm of precipitation was measured.  

At 0718 MDT (June 7), large aggregates ~5 cm lengthwise were observed (picture taken of ~4 cm aggregate below), but we suspect larger aggregates were observed. At 0800 MDT 5.6 cm of snow had accumulated on the snow depth board with a SWE of 6 mm. 

At 1000 MDT Jeremy and Aurélie arrived at Storm Lodge to help us out with the observations. Good timing as we needed help with the observations, but also to pack out of the cabin. Storm lodge employees kindly allowed us to check out at noon, which allowed us to relax a little longer.  

We slowly started to move instruments and other items to their respective vehicles. Hilary and Juris moved the UPS system to the back of the Ford Escape, while Jeremy took observations/photos and Aurélie tidied up. We ran the MRR Pro strictly off the UPS system starting at 1122 MDT. 

By 1115 MDT Jeremy noted it was difficult to take pictures as temperatures were much too warm. At 1320 MDT we took the last observation and there was no precipitation occurring at the time. The last SWE measurement was 13.2 mm, with no recorded depth given it had compacted. 

The four of us debated how we should measure the snow that had accumulated on top of the tipping gauge, with different ideas put forward. In the end, we carefully transferred the snow into a thick ziploc bag and melted the snow with our body heat (Thanks Aurélie!). At 1351 to 1353 MDT we poured the melted water into the tipping bucket. We all understood that this was not the best scientific practice, but voted this would be the most practical method to get a total amount. With the addition of the melted snow we had a total of 12.2 mm.

Our two vehicles departed Storm Lodge at 1405 MDT. Hilary took the MRR Pro and timelapse camera back to BGI, while Jeremy, Aurélie and Juris headed to Nipika to download data. 

- Juris Almonte

Field Participants: Hilary Smith, Juris Almonte, Jeremy Morris & Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe.

FORTRESS

Heavy snow during the day

Selina and I arrived at Fortress at 0054 UTC June 7, at the exact same time as the snow. This led us to believe that it would be a very busy night, but also allowed Selina to finally observe snow – a rare commodity at Nipika! That said, the excitement was short-lived because only 20 minutes later the snow stopped and left us with a light drizzle until 0500 UTC. The temperature decreased throughout this period which allowed the snow to return with a light intensity. The initial crystals were very small and half melted, but they started to become more and more defined the more the temperature decreased. They were primarily small rimed irregular particles, individuals or aggregates, but we all also saw some beautiful and large aggregates of dendrites for a couple minutes around 0700 UTC. The snow then slowly started to diminish and the sky became clear, which showed us the magnificent and bright stars, and strangely illuminated clouds. When the sun started to rise, we were charmed by a slight blanket of snow on the mountains, despite the absence of snow accumulation on our snow board.

- Charlie Hébert-Pinard

​When I woke up at 4 AM this morning, it was still unclear if I would have to go to Fortress to replace Selina and Charlie. The storm appeared to be on the tail end, and the GEM-LAM didn't expect anything coming before 3 PM. As the plan was originally to take measurements at all sites at the same time and as I was already awake, I decided to go. As Hilary was at the Storm Mountain Lodge for this event, I took Michelle Ives with me, an intern working at BGI who had very kindly volunteered to help us during our project if we ever needed assistance. So we arrived at Fortress at 6 AM, and Selina and Charlie were finally able to leave after a long night spent out in the field.

First I started to show Michelle the trailer, how to make observations and to take photographs, as it was her first time on site. She learned very fast, and was quickly able to take her first shift alone. At that point the snow was light and melted too quickly to take photographs. By 7 AM I took a picture of the site to compare it with other sites, you can find that picture below.

By 8:30 MDT the snow became moderate, and intensified until finally at around 11:20 MDT it reached a high level of intensity that we defined as 4.5/5: This intensity lasted for 2 hours. We had some interesting and very big snowflakes which we were finally able to capture, and I even saw capped columns for the very first time!

By 10:30 MDT Professor Julie Thériault came with Professor John Pomeroy to show him and a visitor his site and I could finally meet him after having heard so much about him. He even knew some words in Breton, that definitely made my day.

The snow accumulated on the board, and by 1100 MDT I could show Michelle how to measure the snow depth and the snow-water equivalent (SWE). Around noon the amount of snow was so high that the tent collapsed! I unfortunately didn't take the time to take a picture but I can assure you that it was impressive! Luckily the camera was not injured, and the tent easily took its original form back. Thinking back on it, it might also be lucky that it chose to collapse after Professor John Pomeroy and his visitor had left, and not while they were under it watching me taking photographs. That would have been embarrassing.

The snowfall intensity remained strong until 15:00 UTC, before finally calming down. During the whole time we were on site, the visibility was very poor, and we couldn't really see the ski runs. Around 16:10 MDT it became so foggy that we couldn't see more than 10 meters from us. Around 16:30 MDT we had a last strong episode of snowfall, that lasted until Selina & Charlie came to replace us. On our way back to BGI, Julie and I did a carsonde, and we were able to find a transition zone that was pretty low, around 1590 meters.

Next to the picture I took at 700 MDT, you can find a picture taken just before we made our last observation at 17:00 UTC. With 16 cm of snow accumulated on the ground during that intense day, we were definitely glad that we decided to go on-site that morning, even if no precipitation was expected during the daytime !

- Cécile Carton

​We drove from BGI through mixed precipitation into several centimetres of freshly accumulated snow at the top of Fortress. We arrived (Charlie and Selina) on site at 5:20 MDT (11:20 UTC), where we traded with Cécile and our intrepid BGI intern Michelle. There was about 14 centimetres of freshly accumulated snow on the ground when we arrived and it was snowing quite heavily, with an intensity of about 3. However, as the evening progressed the snow intensity varied, since a couple of small snow squalls popped in for a visit and then promptly left, leaving mostly dendrites, irregularly shaped flakes, needles, and some aggregates in their wake. The birds began to sing again at 1850 MDT (0050 UTC) and the snow fall intensity decreased shortly thereafter. A fine dusting of tiny snowflakes that were well below the threshold for photography graced our presence until we departed shortly after 20:00 MDT (0200 UTC).

- Selina Mitchell

Field participants: Selina Mitchell, Charlie Hébert-Pinard, Cécile Carton, & Michelle Ives

NIPIKA

2 hours of rain and nothing more

​Aurélie, Jeremy and Juris headed out from the RHS at ~9:20 MDT. On the way we observed rain along the Sinclair Pass, again close to the Kootenay Valley viewpoint. Part way down Settler’s Road rain started to occur. We arrived on site at 10:00 MDT with some heavier than typical rain intensity. Temperatures felt a lot cooler with more moisture in the air - a stark difference from yesterday on site. Observations began at 16:00 UTC and at 16:30 UTC, I observed the highest intensity of rain I have seen here so far. With discussion with Aurélie and Jeremy we settled on an intensity of 3. Oddly, the parsivel still called this light rain. Both Aurélie and I were a bit surprised, as we decided that the parsivel at Fortress would have recorded more than -Ra, given this intensity. After discussion with the rest of the team at Fortress we determined that the METAR code that the parsivel outputs might not be the best indicator of intensities and we will need to stick to the raw spectra data.

It was overcast for the full duration of my two hour stretch of observations, but the clouds would become darker and lower, or the opposite and would lift and brighten.  Overall, I noticed more midlevel nimbostratus clouds. At 1730 UTC I could see looking to the SW over the Stanford range that clouds were forming on the base of the mountain, within the next few 10 minute time steps these clouds quickly rose moving along the range towards towards the N. This made sense as the anemometer was showing winds coming from the S. 

Looking at 1828 UTC I observed the same phenomena with clouds moving alongside the Mitchell Mountain Range heading N. By the end of my observation shift, precipitation ended. During Aurélie’s stretch of observations (1810 to 2000 UTC) weather conditions remained very similar at the site. Negligible to light winds coming from South were observed, along with an overcast sky, darker toward south and little brighter at Mitchell range.
​
- Juris

As observed earlier by Juris, some well defined low level clouds moving from south to north were noticed alongside Stanford mountain. On the opposite direction, low level clouds were also forming toward Mitchell range, optically thin at the beginning. They reached the same thickness and were white and opaque in colour.

- Aurélie

Despite the lack of rain, the team was able to work on a few things. The time-lapse camera was moved to a new location, now facing NW, with a good view of all the instruments including the trailer and solar panels, with the Stanford range in the background. Aurélie reorganized and cleaned the truck.

- Juris

​Recent Geonor weighing gauge data was inspected following yesterday's re-leveling. Leveling resulted in slight shifts in offset for frequency and the subsequent depth values between sensors, however the range of measurement across sensors remains unchanged. Further site visits will require an eventual re-calibration and estimation of the apparent accumulation caused by thermal fluctuation in the sensors. 

- Jeremy

Our last observation was taken at 2310 UTC and by that point the cloud cover had lifted, and it was noticeably warmer with the sun rays shining through the cloud.

​- Juris

Field Participants: Jeremy Morris, Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe & Juris Almonte

FORTRESS 

A grey and rainy day

Charlie and I (Hilary) arrived on site at Fortress around 1550 UTC to start taking observations at 1600 UTC. It rained on the way along the highway with varying intensities (sometimes moderate-heavy), but by the time we reached the Fortress gates it was light and was light all the way up the road. Rain was variable throughout the day – generally light to moderate, but at times heavier. Rain stopped around 2210 UTC and we took our last observation at 2300 UTC.
​
- Hilary
 
Field Participants: Hilary Smith & Charlie Hébert-Pinard 

NIPIKA

A hot day on site

With a switch in personnel at Nipika yesterday (Jeremy and Aurélie now on site), we all opted to take advantage of the hot weather to do a full site orientation; going over protocols, checking up on the instruments and doing a full data download. 

Prior to leaving Radium Hot Springs, Silver Star radar was showing convective cells to the south of the radar, though we were unable to see any Cb clouds from the valley. Skies were blue with scattered cumulus clouds. We (Jeremy, Aurélie and Juris) arrived at Nipika for 2147 UTC.

The instrumentation at Nipika was in fine form upon initial inspection. Juris provided Aurélie and Jeremy with an overview of site operations before the team got to work conducting data downloads and inspecting sensors. Data from the MRR and disdrometer, and timelapse images were collected. Weather station data downloads were conducted and all sensor outputs inspected. It was determined that the snow-photography booth was unlikely to see further use and therefore was dismantled. 

Time was taken to inspect the Geonor all-precip weighing gauge to determine causes for variance across transducers, and subtle spikes in output. The collection bucket was levelled via sensor height adjustments to ensure each transducer shared equal weights from the bucket. All wiring was inspected for loose connections, none were found. The group identified the location of each sensor with respect to sun exposure, which was deemed not to be the cause of spikes given that sensor 1 (the spikiest) was the most northern unit. Review of existing research on thermal sensitivity of Geonor transducers will further determine an approach for managing the diurnal noise in depth measurements. Lastly, sensor calibration tests will likely be conducted to ensure the frequency-depth calculations are being offset properly.

The team finished up there, and dipped their toes in the Kootenay river before hitting the road. While travelling to Radium, some convective precipitation was observed at Kootenay valley view point (highest point of drive) and spotted some darling ursine beasts along the way.

-Jeremy

Field PEEPS: Jeremy Morris, Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe, & Juris Almonte

FORTRESS
 
A beautiful and sunny day

Charlie and I (Hilary) spent the beautiful day today downloading data and catching up on some administrative tasks. We headed to Fortress Junction around 1600 UTC where we made sure the car was in tip top shape and sat in the sun while waiting for 8 days of data to download. After around 45 minutes, the downloads were completed and we left for our site at the top of Fortress. We arrived and began downloading another 8 days of data. It was a beautiful day at Fortress and the sun was very bright and very warm. It was interesting to see how much snow has melted since the last time we were there – our site looks almost snow free! We ensured that there was ample space left on the brick and double checked the file format of the LiDAR data. We also tried to troubleshoot Cam 26 and make sure that all the cords were properly connected, however it still wasn’t working - we couldn’t figure out an obvious solution to this problem and decided to leave it in case we messed up Cam 27. After the downloads were completed with our instrumentation, we went towards the powerline instrumentation where we downloaded the MRR data and made sure that everything was plugged into the shed.

Once all of our tasks were completed, upon Mel's suggestion, we walked up to the ridge overlooking Fortress. It was still very snowy but it was lovely view of our surroundings. We saw some beautiful views of the mountains that surround us that we can't see from our trailer because of the buildings and trees. We even saw our little trailer and research site! It made us realize that we take for granted the stunning area in which we are so privileged to be working. 

We left Fortress to head back to BGI around 2030 UTC. At BGI we backed up and uploaded the data to google drive.
 
It’s a big relief to have all the data up to date and that all instrumentation is working after a few days not in the field!
 
-Hilary
 
Field Participants: Hilary Smith & Charlie Hébert-Pinard 

NIPIKA​

Light rain throughout the day

​On our way to Nipika we decided to do a carsonde, however no transition was observed. Light rain was observed through the Sinclair Pass and within Kootenay Valley. The drive was stunning with the low cloud in the valley.

We arrived on site and started our first observations at 1620 UTC. There was light drizzle, with some light precipitation happening prior to our arrival, 

The buzz and cheer from bystanders and contestants of the Crazy Soles Nipika Race could be heard from the site every so often.

Probably the most exciting thing we found was our time-lapse camera which was found on the ground and the stake that held it there bent into the shape of an S (see picture below). Charlie played the detective role, determined to find the culprit of our fallen camera (don't worry it's still in great condition!). It happened to be a trailer that passed by, which accidentally knocked it over. The camera landed facing upward, giving us a few hours of beautiful clouds passing over Nipika. Selina quickly started working on getting a new stake up for our time-lapse camera. 

Precipitation throughout the morning was light overall. The clouds were often midway up the mountain ranges on both sides. However, as all the models predicted, higher precipitation rates would occur in the afternoon, which were observed from 1840 UTC to 1920 UTC, with an intensity from 1.5-3. The parsivel was recording light rain during the highest intensity periods. This is fairly high given how dry conditions we have observed over Nipika thus far. 

Precipitation ended at 2000 and we remained on site till we finished observations by 2200 UTC, with intermittent rays of sunshine striking our station. Radar was showing no precipitation heading towards us and the latest models were showing diminishing chance of precipitation over our area. 

- Juris

Field Participants: Selina Mitchell, Charlie Hébert-Pinard, & Juris Almonte

FORTRESS​

Perfect day for making a snowman

An early morning phone call from Juris woke me (Hilary) up and after a brief discussion, it was decided that a team would head out to the site at fortress. I woke up Cécile and we were on the road by 1130 UTC.

It rained on the way and we did a car sonde on the way up the road at 1200 UTC where we were able to observe a transition region. Once we arrived at the top, precipitation was mixed about 50% snow 50% rain.

Cécile took the first round of observations and observed some moderate snowfall, sometimes mixed with rain. Temperatures were around 2°C, which made it too warm to take macrophotography pictures of the very large aggregates of wet snow.

I took over observations and observed very large aggregates (> 1 cm) of rimed dendrites. Snow was still very wet, but definitely not mixed. (Perfect snowman making snow!) I could feel it getting colder outside so I was able to start taking pictures. The snow particles became smaller around 1620 UTC and we saw various particles such as columns, plates, and dendrites.

​Aurélie and André came to replace us at 1800 UTC. Cécile and I conducted another car sonde on the way down Fortress Road and were able to catch another transition region!
 
-Hilary

Aurélie and I arrived at the Fortress site at 18:00 UTC. By the time we arrived there it was snowing moderately, but with an incredible variety of different unrimed and lightly rimed hydrometeors – dendrites, irregulars hydrometeors, aggregates, columns, capped columns, plates, and 12-branches. The snowfall kept varying around moderate intensity during the afternoon until late afternoon (23:30 UTC) when the intensity started to decrease to light. With the decrease in intensity, the hydrometeors changed abruptly to unrimed and lightly rimed needles and some very isolated columns.

Interestingly the weather radar was not showing any precipitation over us, perhaps the shape of the needles and columns are not reflective enough to the radar beams.

The lower clouds cleared abruptly with the end of the precipitation event, however the sky was still cloudy above, with clouds’ base around the same height of the peaks surrounding our research site. After making sure that event was over, we went to the Powerline station to make sure the Pluvio weighing gauge and the MRR-2 installed there were working and everything was okay.

- André

 
​Field Participants: André Bertoncini, Aurélie Desroches Lapointe, Cécile Carton & Hilary Smith 

NIPIKA

Convective storms all around, except for the valley​

We arrived with cumulus clouds overhead. It was evident that we had a bit of precipitation overnight given some muddy sections driving into the site on km 14 of Palliser road.  Selina confirmed this by looking at the geonor data, which showed amounts of ~1.4 mm around 0600 am MDT.

The whole day was spent watching a variety of cloud types, including Cumulonimbus, nimbostratus, cirrus and towering cumulus, 

Little precipitation was observed at Nipika, with very light precipitation beginning around 1720 UTC and occurring intermittently till around 2010 UTC. Precipitation rates never increased above an intensity of 1. We did observe precipitation on the slopes of the Mitchell Range (East) and with more over the Stanford Range (West).

Throughout most of the afternoon clear blue skies were observed overtop of our site within the valley. This blue sky gap in the clouds fluctuated in width between the two mountain ranges. Many times we thought the cells would make their way towards us, but alas, they would appear to dissipate and virga was observed before the cells reached us. For the most part, winds would fluctuate between westerly and northerly. Though winds were often calm within the valley, there were also some gusty moments likely from outflows of the storms.

Tomorrow there will be a race in the area which will bring  around 200-300 people to the Nipika area. We had a public visitor who had stopped by during a training session. It was delightful to know that he was a fellow earth scientist, who had completed his MSc in glacier hydrology at the University of Calgary - what a small world!

- Juris Almonte

Field Participants: Selina Mitchell, Charlie Hébert-Pinard & Juris Almonte

FORTRESS

Convective storms, no snow 

Yesterday André & I went back to Alberta, after many days spent at Nipika. 2 hours only after our arrival at BGI, we were ready to take our first nightshift, as a convective storm was supposed to bring precipitation over Fortress that night, and possibly the 2 following days.
On our way to Fortress, we made a carsonde, but we didn't find any transition zone. There was no more rain when we arrived on site.
We started taking observations at 05.00 UTC. During the night we observed a light rainfall starting around 06.00 UTC, and increasing to become moderate around 08.30 UTC, before finally ending around 09.20 UTC.
With nothing else visible on the radar, we decided to stop taking observations at 10.00 UTC and got back to BGI to catch up with some sleep, tired but also a bit frustrated. After missing the snow for so long while we were at Nipika, we were pretty excited about the possibility of finally getting some snow, but we can't report anything else than rain at most moderate during that night.

- Cécile

Hilary and I left BGI on Friday morning at around 1400UTC, observing light rain on our way to Fortress Mountain. Seeing along the way that a few mountain tops were foggy, we did a Car-sonde on our way up the mountain and, at 1433UTC, caught the beginning of a transition at the altitude of 1693m where we observed a small amount of solid/mixed particles among the rain. Mixed precipitation was occurring from that point to the top with increasing amount relative to rain. We started taking observations at 1450 while Fortress top was receiving a mixture of rain, graupel and iced particles. Being at the top until 2300UTC, we witnessed three episodes of precipitation, respectively from our arrival (1440) to 1640, from 1900 to 2020 and finally from 2130 to our departure (2240UTC). This 1st one was characterized with rain mixed with graupel and unrimed partially iced particles mainly at a light-to-moderate intensity. On the 2nd episode, we observed light rain followed by moderate to intense mixture of rain and pellets (iced and liquid core). The 3rd one consisted of lighter rain only, reaching moderate intensity. Negligible to light northerly winds were noticed during the day, often weaker during precipitation. Between those events, we had nice weather characterized by sunny with partially to completely overcast sky. Since we couldn’t take macrophotos, we tried to figure out an efficient way to take close-up pictures with the Olympus camera. Results were good, as we’ve been able to capture small details on fabric and on snowpack. Edges of the pictures were still blurred which suggest that we need a little more practice.

- Aurélie

​André & I went back to Fortress to replace Hilary & Aurélie. We noticed a really heavy rainfall while we were driving to Fortress, but it stopped when we arrived on top of the mountain, and Hilary & Aurélie confirmed that they didn't get any of it.
We started taking observations at 22.50 UTC. After a whole night spent hoping for some snow without any result, we still believed that we could have a chance to get some during the day, as the girls got some just before we arrived. But to our great despair, not only didn't we get any snow, but neither did we get any rain. We kept taking observations for some time, as the radar was showing some important convective cells close to us, but those cells remained very stationary and were diminishing. Moreover the most recent update of GEM 2.5 didn't plan any precipitation for the rest of the day, so we decided to go back to BGI and check the radar from there, just to make sure we wouldn't miss anything. For now (0500 UTC), we still haven't see any major change. We will get up early tomorrow morning, to check what the radar looks like, and get prepared to go on the field, as the storm was originally supposed to be the strongest during that day.

- Cécile Carton

Field participants: André Bertoncini, Cécile Carton, Hilary Smith & Aurélie Desroches-Lapointe

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