Topic: Snowfalls

[Andrej Flis]

Hi all. I am not from Australia. so I can`t chase here. But I have been reading this forum for a long time and i think it is great

When you have winter i have summer, and when you have summer i have winter

Now when you have storm season, I have problems with snow



mesaured in cm






This images are from 15.12.2007
Today on 16.12 i have 80cm of snow.
I hope i didn`t do anything wrong by posting this here ???

regards, Andrej

[Steven]

Welcome Andrej, glad to have you on board.  Pleased to have new members coming all the time here. I think this is the right forum.

That is an awful lot of snow there but at the same time its so beautiful, having been in snow once in my life I dream of going to see some more again in the future.

[Mike]

Welcome Andrej!  Your first post and a mighty fine one at that.  I have never seen so much snow!  Glad you've been reading the threads, it's the best way to get comfortable and you've done the hardest thing - post your first comments. 

No problems with the area for the photos and things, it's your first post after all.  I will move it to a separate thread in the general weather section?  That way people can comment on all the snow!  Will do today - it's actually 12:37am I'm replying at!

There's some questions for you about the snow anyway I'd like to ask...

Mike

[Shaun Galman]

Great to have you onboard Andrej!

Well done on your first post, those photos are amazing!
I've never seen snow in my life but would love to get down south and experience it at some point! I have friends in Fairbanks Alaska who have sent me photos of 12foot high snow drifts from resulting temps in the -60's from their house in the mountains.

What kind of low temperatures do you experience there? I bet it would be cold considering the coldest temps I experience here are around 12 - 15º in a "very cold" winter!

Take care,
Shauno

[Mike]

Andrej, did this snow event a result of snow storms or general wintery conditions where you live?  Over what period was the snow fall to get to such a depth?

Mike

[Andrej Flis]

  Thanks for all nice comments. 

My English is bad so i will try to explain as good as possible.

Situation was like this:

It was a core of cold air in heights and anticyclone at the ground.



The precipitation was orgoraphicly made.

The lowest temp. we experience (where I live) are around -20°C, -25°C
I live at 1050 meters above water level 

I apologise if i made any mistakes in spelling words 

[Andrej Flis]

I realize that when you will have winter I will have summer and T-storms 

So when you report about snow I will report About storms in our country 

[Mike]

Wow, that is an intense low pressure system.  947hpa!  No wonder there's so much adverse weather.  -20C is bitterly cold I would expect!  Was that low pressure system the cause for all the snow?

Mike

[Andrej Flis]

No. That system had no effect.

The precipitation were orgographic


The strongest cyclonic system in europe was in 1993. The lowest center pressure
was 913hpa. 

[Gambit]

Hi All thought this might help!

orographic cloud—
Mountain clouds produced by orographic lifting of moist air to saturation.
 
Clouds formed by upslope winds are generally stratiform, those formed by mountain wave updrafts are often lenticularis-type or wave clouds, and those formed by heating, such as elevated heat source or leeside convergence effects, are generally cumuliform. Upslope and wave clouds are clouds with form and extent determined by the disturbing effects of orography upon the passing flow of air. Because these clouds are linked to the topography, they are generally standing clouds, even though the winds at the same level may be very strong.

Orographic upslope clouds include stratiform cap or crest clouds and the foehn wall.

Convective orographic clouds are also strongly tied to the topography.
Banta (1990) finds that mountain flows, which are driven by the topography interacting with the large-scale winds and the diurnal heating cycle, “play a significant role in determining where convective cells will initiate, and often how precipitation from the showers will be distributed spatially . . . they regulate not only the location of storm initiations, but also the timing.”
          Banta, R. M., 1990: The role of mountain flows in making clouds. Meteor. Monogr., 45, p. 283.

orographic lifting—Ascending air flow caused by mountains.
Mechanisms that produce the lifting fall into two broad categories: 1) the upward deflection of horizontal larger-scale flow by the orography acting as an obstacle or barrier; or 2) the daytime heating of mountain surfaces to produce anabatic flow along the slopes and updrafts in the vicinity of the peaks. The first category includes both direct effects, such as forced lifting and vertically propagating waves, and indirect effects, such as upstream blocking and lee waves. Even though this term strictly refers only to lifting by mountains, it is sometimes extended to include effects of hills or long sloping topography. When sufficient moisture is present in the rising air, orographic fog or clouds may form.


Found at http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse?s=o&p=13 and http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse?s=o&p=14


hope it helps


Mat

[Andrej Flis]

Tanks.  

It helps allot.

THIS HAPPENNED TO ME
orographic precipitation—Precipitation caused or enhanced by one of the mechanisms of orographic lifting of moist air.
Examples of precipitation caused by mountains include rainfall from orographic stratus produced by forced lifting and precipitation from orographic cumuli caused by daytime heating of mountain slopes. Many of the classic examples of locations having excessive annual precipitation are located on the windward slopes of mountains facing a steady wind from a warm ocean. As another example, wintertime orographic stratus (cap clouds) often produce the major water supply for populated semiarid regions such as the mountainous western United States, and as a result these cloud systems have been a target of precipitation enhancement, cloud-seeding projects intended to produce snowpack augmentation. Orographic precipitation is not always limited to the ascending ground, but may extend for some distance windward of the base of the barrier (upwind effect), and for a short distance to the lee of the barrier (spillover). The lee side with respect to prevailing moist flow is often characterized as the dry rain shadow

[Mike]

Cool, thanks for the info. Now I know where you're at with this.  Orographically splendid indeed.

Mike