Chinook winds came up yesterday driving the temperatures above freezing and causing the snow to start melting. The resulting pools of water mixed with slush presented some interesting reflections of the sunset sky, almost like abstract paintings.
If you are wondering what a chinook wind is, it's caused by adiabatic warming of downward moving air from the mountains producing a warm wind on the plains below. According to Wikipedia: "A popular myth is that Chinook (Indian word) means 'snow eater', as a strong Chinook can make snow one foot deep almost vanish in one day. The snow partly melts and partly evaporates in the dry wind. Chinook winds have been observed to raise winter temperature, often from below −20°C (−4°F) to as high as 10°C to 20°C (50°F to 68°F) for a few hours or days, then temperatures plummet to their base levels."
Today it is 60 degrees.
If you are wondering what a chinook wind is, it's caused by adiabatic warming of downward moving air from the mountains producing a warm wind on the plains below. According to Wikipedia: "A popular myth is that Chinook (Indian word) means 'snow eater', as a strong Chinook can make snow one foot deep almost vanish in one day. The snow partly melts and partly evaporates in the dry wind. Chinook winds have been observed to raise winter temperature, often from below −20°C (−4°F) to as high as 10°C to 20°C (50°F to 68°F) for a few hours or days, then temperatures plummet to their base levels."
Today it is 60 degrees.
2 comments:
Hi Jetti,
Some awesome pictures here, particularly these ones. I'm jealous of your snow covered Christmas (we didn't get any in France), though not of the shovelling bit (though I am curious, never having had to do it). Am I correct in thinking that January or February is the coldest month? Hope it doesn't get too much. :-)
Alex
I was wondering how Christmas in France was... hope it was fun.
January is usually the coldest here.
Shovelling isn't that bad unless it gets to be over 8" or more, especially if it's a really wet and heavy snow.
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