What Is “Orographic” Precipitation At Tremblant?
Within the T360 “Mountain Conditions” ski
reporting you will find frequent references to
“Orographic Precipitation" as either an explanation
for, or as a part of the description of, the components
of the conditions du jour.
The reason this is important is because it is
a reliable cause of snowfall over Tremblant
Mountain elevations that can substantially
exceed ground level forecast or actual
accumulation amounts.
See all included annotations below.
Tremblant.Orographic.Snowfall.Graphic.Description.a.jpg
- Tremblant.Orographic.Snowfall.Graphic.Description.a.jpg (1.29 MiB) Viewed 86694 times
The graphic illustration above is what we might refer to
as a “Classic” orographic precipitation profile over a
mountainous topographical feature, however we have
expressly made a reference to a “push-over”, lee-side
backfilling action in the annotations above because that
is actually a very common occurrence at Tremblant.
In these frequent push-over occurrences, the Versant
Nord/North-Side and Edge sectors can get huge snowfall
drifted-in deposit benefits. On a seasonal basis the
aggregate effect can often be seen in our daily reporting,
especially in contrast, towards the end of the season when
the combinations of early spring late day heat bakes the
Sud/South lower Resort levels, melting off bush snow to
bare ground, while the shaded, cooler, upper Nord/North
sectors that have had a seasons worth of orographic favour,
can often maintain open Sous Bois/Hors Piste bush snowpack
depths of +/- 1.5 metres(5 Ft.), which we photographically
record periodically as a “Proof Of Snow” within our daily
conditions journal.
As only one example of how Orographic precipitation
is identified as a component of ski conditions active
weather forecasting, see our daily conditions journal
for 1/9/24(January 9th, 2024).
Journal Main Index Link @: http://tinyurl.com/yktelmu
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