Item: Atmospheric Rivers and Large Avalanche Events in Slide Canyon, Utah, USA
-
-
Title: Atmospheric Rivers and Large Avalanche Events in Slide Canyon, Utah, USA
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop 2016 Proceedings, Breckenridge, CO, USA
Authors:
- Matthew C. Primomo [ Utah Department of Transportation, Midvale, UT, USA ]
Date: 2016-10-02
Abstract: An atmospheric river (AR) is a narrow and long atmospheric structure that is responsible for the majority of horizontal water vapor transport outside of the tropics (Zhu and Newell 1998). A way of assessing AR's and strong moisture transport events in general is through the presence of high values of integrated water vapor transport (IVT), which provides a quantitative measure of how much water is being transported in the atmosphere. Slide Canyon is a large avalanche path in Provo Canyon, Utah. High IVT (>180Kg/m/s) were observed during the 3-day period preceding all of the D4 avalanche events in Slide Canyon since 1978. Arrivals of ARs are fairly infrequent here, but when they do heavy, and prolonged precipitation may occur. The majority of storm total precipitation occurs during the warm phase of the storm (pre-frontal). Large avalanches tend to occur early on during these events. A case study of the four most recent occurrences with further analyses are included.
Object ID: ISSW16_P4.19.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s):
Keywords: atmospheric river, integrated vapor transport, large avalanche, orographic, precipitation
Page Number(s): 1261-1268
Subjects: integrated vapor transport avalanches atmospheric river
-