This past thursday my crack team (Chris and Dwight) and I headed up to the top of Deer Ridge to do a little snow sampling and weather station construction. The not so fun part of putting a weather station together at the top of a five mile+ hike is getting it there. Luckily I was able to delay packing my bag in the parking lot long enough for Dwight to grab the heaviest part of the station, thereby saving your cyber hero the discomfort of carrying it himself. My plan wasn't as effective as I'd hoped it would be, as there was still enough heavy items to go around. Not to complain, the day was beatiful, I had skis on my feet (partway anyhow), and we ended up with a very productive day; four snow courses sampled and one weather station constructed. Not to mention that Chris and I collected valuable video footage for our vidcast on the water budget model. cough, NASA, cough, cough. We were taught a valuable lesson in improvisation on this trip as well. Even though we forgot the snow tube weighing rack and the main center post for the weather station, we were able to fashion suitable replacements out of a rag and a piece of closet rod. IN YOUR FACE MacGyver!!!!!
2 comments:
A photo from Deer Ridge with no snow?! There's still a foot at Slab Camp now!
Of interest: the papers of David Peterson of the UW FAME Lab, particularly Nakawatase, Peterson "Spatial variability in forest growth - climate relationships in the Olympic Mountains, Washington", Can J For Res, 36, 77 (2006).
http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/24572
Statistical analysis of climate and tree ring records from Dungeness drainage shows sensitivity of tree growth to summer droughts, which are likely to become more severe in future decades.
And a "whazzit allabout" counterintuitive trivia question: which is larger, the mean flow of the Seattle Public Utilities water system serving 1.4 million people, or the mean flow of the Dungeness?
[Answer: Dungeness 382 cfs, Seattle 215 cfs. Surprising, eh?]
Note: reposted with link to full paper.
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