Last weekend, I took my familiy on a trip to see the Lava Beds National Monument (the kids had a great time exploring the lava tube caves) and also a stop at Crater Lake. Crater Lake happens to have a USHCN weather station, and it is one of the few stations that GISS excludes (they have an exclusion code for it in their software Mosher located some time ago). This is what the station looked like in fall 2007 when I visited:
And here it is was on May 29th, 2011, from approximately the same view:
My lovely wife, who is a better photographer than I am, (and lighter on her feet) took a hike to the top of the snow and got this photo:
Note the rain gauge on the stilt tripod and the tracks leading to it. That was placed there by park staff in an effort to catch May rains…except, it was snowing the day we were there. There is also a snowboard to catch fresh snowfall to the left of the tower.
Note the Stevenson screen has been elevated on the tower, here is a closeup:
Note the MMTS thermistor temperature shield on top of the Stevenson Screen (circular plates), an addition since 2007. It moves up and down the tower with the screen based on snow depth.
How much snow was there at the end of May? A closeup of the snowpole gives a value:
Snow depth on May 29th, 2011, just shy of 10 feet.
The posted weather statement in the visitor’s center is enlightening:
Snow depth, 213% of average. One wonders if it will melt before winter sets it.
Dave Springer says:
June 6, 2011 at 5:50 pm
I was going to ask what the phase lengths were for tilt & ellipticity, and where thier current peak times reside. I spot two large waves in the Vostok/EPICA core records.
They are seen at 730,000 and 685,000 BP, 610,000 and 570,000 BP, 520,000 and 490,000 BP… as if moving together. The record is not altogether clear, but it should be possible to project forward the shape of things to come, and when.
I wonder what the lesser waves are in the core record?
Whoops, forgot my link:
http://www.robertb.darkhorizons.org/TempGr/Vostok.JPG
Sorry for mixing up ” and ‘
I like the funny stuff you publish:
10’ snow in approx 7000′ a.s.l. and you “wonder(s) if it will melt before winter sets in”.
I guess you never dealt with measuring snow covers in a mountain region before.
You should do it before you post your funny stories.
Lest’s hope that teh hot season will come slowly. There a re a coulple of feet water out there. And the snow will be gone by October, I bet (except a couple of small patches may be).
Re “John B says: June 6, 2011 at 7:49 am” about transiting the NW Passage, I ask if icebreaking was involved in any of the passages you list.
Cruise ships operating up there have some capability to handle rigors of that remote location. The paper published in “Arctic” that I refer to later herein lists 27 cruise ship transits from 1984 to 2004, all by “ice-strengthened” or “ice breaker” ships. Half of the trips were by a single Russian ice-breaking ship (the Kapitan Khlebnikov). One of the ice-strengthened ships was “escorted to Victoria Strait” twice (which sounds like it had difficulty with ice) and ran aground on another trip (the Hanseatic of Bahamas registry). IOW, the passage was not easy even for modern ships at the height of the last temperature peak.
The St. Roch was a small ship, reinforced with extra layers of wood material. Would it have had the ability to hit ice hard enough to get on top of the edge of it, which is how much icebreaking is done? Note that it transited the NW Passage when the climate was warm
Makes a great difference. For example in 1969, considered a cold time, an “ice-breaking oil tanker” transited the passage. (According to Encarta 2005.)
And a big problem is ice being moved around by wind and current, so the passage might be difficult in a year with less ice, or vice versa. Makes cruising up there risky. Note the passage is among islands, it is not over-the-top. (Refer to the study by Dr. Holloway and Tessa Sou from the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sydney BC, titled “Is Arctic Sea Ice Rapidly Thinning?” for some discussion of ice moving around, and the year-to-year variation at several locations. The primary purpose of the paper is to compare submarine measurements of various vintages, but it shows variations in ice location and winds. Published in “Ice and Climate News” of September 2001, and in Journal of Climate July 2002. Refer also to “Sea Ice in Canada’s Arctic: Implications for Cruise Tourism, published in “Arctic” of December 2007, which warns that even with warming there is increased likelihood of “hull-penetrating high-latitude multi-year ice”.)
Those papers show great variability of the amount and location of ice, noting 1998 as a year of unusual melt but subsequent years were typical.
There’s also discussion of a Northeast Passage and when it was navigable.
More on the Kapitan K:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapitan_Khlebnikov_(icebreaker) says it was built as an icebreaker, and lists several specialized features including to tow another ship up tight. It is a serious ship, with passenger accommodations added when the USSR fell apart.
No surprise it did the largest proportion of NW Passage trips in the time frame I quote.
Hey “Tom in Florida” who said on June 5, 2011 at 9:52 am “Meanwhile, down in the south central Gulf coast of Florida I was a bit chilled swimming in the Gulf yesterday morning. Seems the water wasn’t yet quite up to the 84 F I am used to at this time of year.”,
isn’t that cruelty? Just wait until July and August when I always tell people how humid it is on the east coast of the US compared to the west coast. 😉
I’m chuckling at Colin in Mission BC’s comment about removing snow.
When you’ve seen how efficiently the city of Cedar Rapids IA clears snow, you might think streets & roads people in SW BC and western WA are stumble-bums.
Of course IA gets much more snow, so has more equipment and experience, but still deserves a huge amount of credit. Their level of performance requires dedication and organization.
(Colin, you don’t want to be in some of the mountains north of Vancouver BC when it is snowing or raining much. Behind Lions Bay for example there are incredibly high rainfall rates, which can create a “debris torrent” – a mush of water, dirt, trees, rocks. Killed a few people before bridge designers and housing developers recognized the risk. Environmentalists tried to blame it on logging, investigation showed it was a normal phenomenon – it and the rainfall rate had not been recognized before.)