Observation: Turnagain

Check out these temperature gradients in the snowpack on Center Ridge at 1900′!

This is a teaser to a new snow temperature data collection site provided by BeadedStream. The site measures temperature every 10cm from 25cms under the ground surface up to 3 meters and will be sending real-time data all winter long. See graph – red is temp and blue is the freezing mark.

For the past week+ temperature gradients have been as much as 60C/m in the upper 20cms. And 15 to 50C/m in the rest of the pack. These are all high enough gradients for growing faceted snow grains. Hence a snowpack full of facets.

Also, the coldest place between the ground and 3meters high is just above the snow surface. This is the near surface AIR temperature inversion that is responsible for all the surface hoar growth below treeline. Cool stuff.

More on this new item in the days and weeks to come.

Note: 10C/m – Celsius per meter – is the general rule of thumb for faceting, however, the colder the snow the higher the gradient needs to be to facet.