SNOWFALL: DAILY Messages: 24 Entries..

03 Mar: 

Overcast and chilly this morning. Cloud base is far above peaks, though.
Sunny by 10am and for the rest of the day.

Launched one sonde for National Geographic
Used another sonde to test reception from Gondola.

END PROJECT AT 22:30 Z.

(and begin clutter tests)

02 Mar: A dusting of snow at the hotel at 14Z (0700 LT). Sunny and mostly
clear by 15Z. Sunny all afternoon. A real nice day.
No operations planned.

01 Mar: A little snow in the wee hours. Snowing at 14Z tapering off by
16Z.

Soundings at 15:35 Z and 19"12 Z.
Partly sunny in the afternoon.

The stream turned into a lake. Dug more flow channels. By 00:00Z (1700 LT)
the lake had mostly drained. Also all instruments clear of snow.

28 Feb: Mostly sunny morning; some fog especially in town. Randy notes
easterly flow at SPL so we are doing a sounding to learn more about
its depth. More sun by 17:45 Z. Mostly sunny all day. Occasional high
overcast.

Soundings at 16:30 Z, 0336 Z, 0509 Z.

27 Feb: Some snow overnight. Light snow in the early morning. Partly sunny
by mid-morning. Partly sunny and occasional flurries throughout the afternoon.

One sounding today at 14:58 Z (07:56 LT).

The river flows.

26 Feb: Dry overnight. Bright with high overcast (Cirrus) this morning. High
clouds most of the day, lowering by mid-afternoon but not low enough.
Maybe tomorrow.

There is alot of dirt showing under the ice. I have dug a channel to
divert a pool of water away from the transmitter. Next year, if possible,
we should put the TX up on blocks.

25 Feb: A couple of inches snow overnight. Flurries this morning.
Partly sunny in afternoon with scattered flurries.

We launched a sonde today: 16:00 Z (0900 LT).

MAPR in time series mode beginning 15:46 Z and ending at 23:30 Z
Cleared radiation sensors at 16:55Z.

24 Feb: Just a few flurries overnight. Flurries all morning, and overcast.
We launched two sondes today: 15:40 Z, 17:55 Z, and 20:30 Z.

Became partly sunny in early afternoon, although SPL still in cloud.
By late afternoon, clear in valley, cloud aloft over mountain but base above
SPL height.

Had vertical montion oscillation again from about 19:35 to 20:35 Z.
Sounding launched just after it died down.

MAPR in time series mode beginning 16:05 Z, ending 00:30 Z (25-Feb)

23 Feb: Dry overnight. Sunny all day. Small chance of snow this evening or
tomorrow. Alot more melting expected. A river runs through it.

MAPR in correlation-only mode.

Randy got a call that National Geographic will be visiting to do a story from
March 2-4.

Note interesting MAPR return:
  Persistant upgraft starting at 0105Z (24 Feb), followed by snow aloft and
finally reaching the surface. Updraft dissapears by 02:25. Also there is a
"jet" in horizontal wind speed, and wind shear aloft (warm advection?).

22 Feb: A couple of inches overnight. Sunny in the morning. Randy says this
is the first time in a while that Storm Peak is out of cloud.

A whole lot of melting goin' on.

Visited the Lab today. Great lunch and views.

MAPR in correlation-only mode.

21 Feb: Snow overnight, since about midnight. 4 inches at site at 8am.
Snow off/on in  and early afternoon (untill about 14:00 LT). Sunny at times.

MAPR in corr/tms (wind/RASS tms/corr) mode starting at 7:30 LT (14:30 Z) for an IOP.

Sonde launched at: 14:55Z (07:55 LT)

Again, the orange cone was plowed into the snow bank. Got the site in good shape
again but it took alot of shoveling.

Changed MAPR back to cor-only (no time series) at 22:30Z (15:30 LT)

Accidently overwrote this. Need to replace.

19 Feb: Snowing this morning. Most snow 8am to 12 noon (15-19Z).
About 7 inches total, and still lightly snowing at 22:50
Had 1 minute of small (3mm?) hail at 19:55Z

Launched 4 sondes today:
   16:30, 17:57, 18:20, and 22:00 Z (09:30. 10:57, 11:20, and 15:00 LT). The third was because of problems with the second launch, but that data looks ok, too.

MAPR in time-series and correlation mode from: 19:05 Z (12:05 LT) - 02:05 (20-Feb)
Also for 10-minutes earlier, but that was stopped because of disk space limits.
Also note that MAPR pc crashed at 22:48Z for about 30 minutes before restart.

Ending IOP at 22:45 Still snowing at surface and in cloud at lab, but as Randy said:"We've characterized this storm pretty well."

I will continue to collect time series for a few more hours since it is snowing nicely.

17 Feb was a mostly sunny day as I drove up from Boulder. The esol is broken up this morning so maybe clouds before noon.

The site fared well unattended. RASS, profiler antenna, and radiation
stands are all clear. The cables are also not too frozen in.

Will need to shovel tomorrow.

I wonder if the snow gauges are working. MAPR shows snow on Feb 15 but the surface station archive shows no readings from the gauges?

12 Feb mainly fine, scattered cloud and mild.

Stream is still flowing, with surrounding pools forming.
Lifted up more cables out of the ice on to blocks (including fire wood)
and also tied to trailer.  Some cables really stuck - have to hope
for a thaw.  Dug out snow bank in front of trailer.
Cleaned snow off MAPR radome.

CSU class visited with Bill Cotton, gave them a tour, then they went
up to the Sotrm Peak Lab for a couple of days.
Showed Melanie how to look after the system (basically only change tapes)
for a few days while we are gone.

11 Feb mainly fine, scattered low cloud and a little light snow.
Breezey at times. Last night about 1/2 inch of snow fell.
Carried out an IOP with 2 sondes, although the snow was a bit light.

This morning the lake had turned into an ice skating rink, 
then later the dam broke.  A drain hole opened up under the snowbank
and a stream ran from the carpark, under a snow gauge, and around the
end of the trailer.
Brought some firewood to lift cables out of the water, and zip-tied
others together and onto the trailer.

Lost some data when MAPR TX blanking came on early this morning for 
some unexplained reason (see MAPR tklog entry), working ok now.

10 Feb sunny, scattered high cloud.

Parts of site turning into a lake, as snow on carpark melts
and drains towards site. Then it starts to refreeze.
Trying to keep cables out of water so they don't become stuck in
ice, but it's a battle.
Snowbank sagging, and solar sensor tilting, straightened and tried
to re-enforce bank below it.

Visited by a couple of CSU students (one an Aussie), here with a
class Randy has at the lab.

9 Feb sunny and cold. Frost last night.

8 Feb a couple of inches of snow overnight and this morning, then clearing.
Did IOP2, just one sonde because Storm Peak lab not really in cloud.
Some more very light snow late afternoon.

7 Feb fine and partly cloudy with sunny periods, mild.
1/2 inch of snow last night, that froze, but not the predicted 3-6 inches of 
snow during the day - although MAPR showed some snow falling aloft
that didn't reach the ground.  Wind changed and picked up during afternoon.

Melanie Wetzel visited and took some photos.

6 Feb fine and partly cloudy.  Inversion during morning, frost overnight.
None of the predicted snow - maybe tomorrow.
Took pictures of hot-air balloon over surface station,
it also appeared in MAPR data.
Mike went back to Boulder, taking mapr tapes 1-10 with him.
Saw a couple of foxes, they seem to have a den nearby.

Partly cloudy and mild - not the predicted snowstorm.
Very light grappel around 5pm LT (Randy happened to be visiting
and identified it).  Very nice gravity waves seen by mapr
during late afternoon.

The weather today had clouds running
through all day and sunny spots in between.
Very warm, with lots of melting. 

Had a visit from his Waltness. He seems to
really be enjoying the new job, except for the
morning 4 am internet conference. 

Put an extension on the cordless phone, assigned
the code of 00 for retrieving msgs, took site 
pix and made up a site drawing. Also built a 
snow woman. She's bald though. 

Also shoveled, shoveled shoveled and checked the
sensors and fan. Borrowed a hand held temp/hum
and it agrees well with the surface station.

IOP1.

2-3 inch snow overnight, more during day, though gradually easing apart
from some showers around midday - which included some light grappel.
Cloud base about 1 km.  Visiability in morning around 5 km, more later.

2 soundings, 15UT & 21UT.