Item: Linking Weather Conditions to Snow Property Variations
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Title: Linking Weather Conditions to Snow Property Variations
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop Grenoble – Chamonix Mont-Blanc - October 07-11, 2013
Authors:
- Benjamin Reuter [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Jürg Schweizer [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, Davos, Switzerland ]
Date: 2013-10-07
Abstract: One of the challenges to modern avalanche forecasting is to enhance the forecasts’ content with information on how snow instability varies in time and space at the sub-regional scale. Slope instability estimates for different aspects within a region rely on sparse field data, such as avalanche activity or snow profiles combined with the forecasters’ experience. Snow instability modelling is in the early stages, not least because our knowledge of the inherently variable nature of the mountain snowpack and its causes is limited. In the past two winters we measured snowpack properties with the snow micro-penetrometer at the basin scale. With meteorological input from AWS located near the field sites we reconstructed the evolution of the weather prior to the time of our field campaigns. In a first analysis we looked at the general synopsis which describes recurring weather situations over central Europe. Then, we characterized the local weather in the region by the meteorological conditions at the weather station in the basin. Finally, we zoomed in further and modelled the meteorological conditions in the slopes where we had performed the field measurements. Differences in basin scale stability were not resolved with categorized synoptic scale weather information. Local weather conditions as captured by the AWS accounted for some of the observed differences in snow properties on the three different days. Considering the local slope conditions showed that in one case surface warming (energy input) caused the differences in slab density. Our preliminary analyses suggest that modelling the snow cover and the meteorological conditions over time might well indicate spatial instability patterns at the basin scale.
Object ID: ISSW13_paper_P4-08.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Unknown
Keywords: snow microstructure, snow properties, fracture, snow stability, spatial variability, weather
Page Number(s): 061-064
Subjects: snow stability snowpack properties weather conditions
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