Winter Conditions On Summit For Today....
(Tomorrow may be a different story, as far as temps go, but the skiing/boarding
will still be good then anyway... more on that later.)
Official Open Trail count at 8 this morning, same as yesterday, with
Summit temps at -3C, or 27F. Base level temps may get up to above freezing
but as all our open terrain is Summit based, we will not see conditions
affected the same way up top.
(with regard to the open trail count number, there were some complaints
on Tremblant's Facebook page that there were fewer trails than shown.
What they were talking about is that smaller connector trails shouldn't count
when it's actually important that they are. Here's why: http://alturl.com/n54py )
How To Analyze Web Cam Pics for Weather Changes:
(Only for people that enjoyed Geography in school.)
Here's a WebCam snapshot of the summit this morning and as you can see
there's still snow in the trees. If the summit temps go above freezing, it's
this snow in the trees that thaws first as there is nothing to insulate it from
the air. When we expect a temp change that may go over freezing, this
observation is one of the first ways to tell that may be happening.
- Web Cam Snap Shot courtesy of www.tremblant.ca
- 11.30.10.Summit.Snow.In.Trees.jpg (16.71 KiB) Viewed 2983 times
snapshot, we can even observe the progressive rise in temps by noting
that there are some trees here, some of the ones facing the left of the screen,
that do not have snow in them, why is that? Firstly, there is more than 1 possible
answer to this question, but for today, the likelihood is that there may be some
warmer wind coming up the Mountain from the South as has been predicted
by the Weather Network.
Look at those same trees from 23 hours ago, yesterday,
in this close-up:
- Web Cam Snap Shot courtesy of www.tremblant.ca
- 11.29.10.Summit.Snow.jpg (21.96 KiB) Viewed 2982 times
Once the frost goes into the Mountain it acts as a frozen ambient temperature
storage system, and consequently, it gives our surfaces far greater
durability.
This is the main reason we're still going to have good
skiing and boarding tomorrow, even if we do get a bit of warm wind
for a few hours.
Official Trail and Grooming status report, Courtesy of http://www.tremblant.ca
- Screenshot Courtesy of www.tremblant.ca
- Picture 12.png (167.65 KiB) Viewed 2984 times
of temperature change that we have to deal with until the full grip of
winter sets in.
Tremblant has had more than enough frost into the Summit where
we are skiing and boarding now, to cope with the forecast and keep
our fine snow surfaces.
Additional Positive Factors:
The overnight temps are forecasted to be Sub-Zero at the Summit.
The short "Blip" in the temps will only last for a day, then we'll be returning
to those nice crisp sub-zero temps on a 24hr basis.
Potential "Dream" factor: Time will tell on this one, but there
are both rain and snow in the forecast, so, the potential "Dream" factor is that
the possibility exists that the forecast is wrong, the temps go lower, and all
we get is a ton of Snow!
In our experience, this "dream" factor has occurred at least once or twice
each season. The reason it can happen is "Tipping Points". The tipping point
for us now is that the temps are soooo close to freezing, that even the
smallest variation in favour of cold, can produce snow instead of rain.
The possibility also exists that it could rain at the base and snow at the
summit due to the summit's cooler temps at altitude, 2116 ft above the
base. Orographic snow is also possible as warm moist air is pushed up
the Mountain into the cooler temps of the summits altitude and condenses,
falling as snow.
The point is, anything can happen at this time of year, so all we can do is
hope for the best, but regardless, as previously mentioned, there is more than
enough frost in the Mountain at the summit to hold good skiable/boardable
terrain through a short "Thermal" event.
Links:
http://www.tremblant.ca
http://www.tremblant.ca/mountain/winter ... port-e.htm
http://www.tremblant.ca/mountain/trailmap-e.htm
http://www.tremblant.ca/galleries/webcams/index-e.htm
http://translate.google.com/translate_t ... =fr&tl=en#
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/CAQC0360
.