Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Great LCC stratus surge

The trailer for the latest ski movie from the Wasatch's finest contains a great clip of a stratus surge into LCC at about 2:29-2:34.  Front or late afternoon cold pool upslope?  Free trailbreaking from yours truly for whoever figures it out.  The trailer is worth watching anyway as I'm sure several of you can remember skiing some of the lines featured.  I think I recognized an aspen or two.  I certainly remember the face shots.

6 comments:

  1. Powderwh0re's 'Television' ....
    EASY!!! I recommend the whole film, because you get to see more of that stratus cloud of course!
    So, do I get to pick where you're trail breaking for me?

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  2. You still haven't answered the question! Is this a cold pool, with the stratus moving up canyon in the afternoon due to thermally driven flows? Or is it a front? More effort is needed to claim the prize.

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  3. Um....I was confused on the question...
    I would suggest cold pool upslope in a post frontal environment around March last year.

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  4. It would be interesting to dig into this and find out what day it was, if only for fun. If this is a cold pool, it's quite deep. Perhaps instead of it being a post-frontal environment, there's actually an approaching trough and the cold-pool is being scoured out, which would explain the depth of the stratus.

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  5. Ahhh ... nix the front idea. Not even a hint or a wisp of cloud in the western sky. Doubt it is frontal related. It is clearly afternoon and probably near 4ish o'clock given the sun's position over the Oquirrhs. It does look cold poolish if you slow motion the frames. I'll take the afternoon upslope flow as the entire valley cold pool lifts and weak upslope flow sucks the stratus into upper LCC.

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  6. I've gone through my notes from last winter and can't find anything definitive (although I don't ski every day). I did note that 14 March was one of the more fascinating mountain weather days I had seen in a while due to complex flows in LCC with a nose of stratus protruding into LCC. The event featured a cold-frontal passage the previous day in the valley, but the front was too shallow to push through at upper elevations. I suppose this is a candidate, but It would be interesting to find out what day this footage was shot as it is an interesting time lapse.

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