Wasatch Weather Weenies

Nothing makes me cringe more than being asked if an extreme weather event is caused by climate change.  The answer is not simple and straightforward and in most situations the linkages, if they exist, are complex. Currently, my go-to guide on the subject is a report prepared the Committee on Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change Attribution for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press in 2016 (available by clicking here ).  It is freely available as a pdf. I have long been concerned about the conflation of weather and climate by the media and special interest groups, and the report expresses my concerns very well.  For example, they summarize my "cringiness" quite well: "Although climate scientists are frequently asked 'Was a given observed weather event caused by climate change?' we believe this is a poorly formed (or ill-posed) question that rarely has a satisfactory answer."  The...

The hemispheric large-scale pattern during May featured anomalously low 500-mb heights over Utah and central Europe, meaning the weather you've been experiencing in Utah bears some similarity to what I've been experiencing here in the Austrian Alps. Source: ESRL Recent tweets from the National Weather Service emphasize how wet the spring has been in Utah. 2019 now rates as the 2nd wettest spring on record at the Salt Lake City International Airport. Here is the latest update on Spring rainfall at SLC #utwx pic.twitter.com/x4kd344YM2 — NWS Salt Lake City (@NWSSaltLakeCity) May 28, 2019 Through May 27th, May 2019 rated as the 22nd wettest since 1874, but it appears that the recent rain will add significantly to the total. The Snowbird SNOTEL time series for this season shows a remarkable turnaround mid month with snowpack water equivalent bottoming out on May 19 at 43.1 inches and then recovering back to 47.7 inches on May 28. Source: NOAA/NWS/CBRFC The snowpa...

Skiing in the Alps is fun, but hiking in the Alps is better.  The mountains are beautiful and the mountain culture adds a cherry on top.   Innsbruck has great hiking all around.  One of my all-time favorite hikes is the Goetheweg trail from the top of the Hafelekar tram to the Pfeishütte, where you can get a wonderful meal.  There's still way to much snow to attempt that right now, so here are a few photos from August 2015 to get it on your radar if you are ever in Innsbruck in summer or fall.   Instead, today I hiked from our apartment at 600 meters to the top of the Seegrube tram at 1900 meters.  Initially I ascended trails and gravel roads, reaching the pilgrimage chapel known as Höttinger Bild.   Above this I continued to ascend through forest, that was occasionally divided by enormously long running avalanche paths, some of which ran to very low elevations this past winter.   The route f...

It's been a busy week and I haven't had any time to blog.  I did notice that Snowbird hit 700 inches for the year and continue to hear reports of endless winter in the Wasatch.  The Snowbird SNOTEL observations certainly show you are experiencing a major spring interruption with snowpack water equivalent increasing in the past several days.  Source: NOAA/NWS/CBRFC How long can this continue?  Well, if you are a believer in the Steenburgh effect, until the end of June.  At that time, unless someone gets a big Go Fund Me campaign going and the Austrians decide to extend my visa, I'm returning to Utah.  There are, however, hints that the Steenburgh effect may have reversed polarity.  It has been a wet, cool May in the Austrian Alps and the snowpack above 2000 meters has fattened up nicely.  Check out these photos from late April 2018 and 2019 from Kuhtai, which is just a bit west of Innsbruck.  Perhaps this Steenburgh effect reall...

My son Erik begins his return to the states today.  The sky is crying, with rain falling on the Nordkette. Although the weather wasn't an absolute bust, we definitely didn't have good luck.  He wanted badly to do one ski tour in the Alps, so yesterday we did a short tour up Axamer Lizum, which has been closed for skiing for a few weeks.  Given the southerly flow and preponderance of mid-level flow clouds, it was probably our best option for the day since it is high enough that there's still a decent snowpack, low enough to be below the clouds, and north enough relative to the crest to be mainly dry. It was certainly his final run in the Alps this season and probably mine above the Inn Valley, although there is some chance I'd tour here again.  More likely if I get out again it will be closer to the Alpine crest. I've seen plenty of posts of good powder in the Wasatch.  Enjoy the last gasps of the Steenburgh effect.

The cable car from Lake Eibsee to the top of the Zugspitze, a nearly 3000 meter peak on the border of Germany and Austria, has to be one of the greatest thrill rides on the planet.  It's an "E" ticket based on old-school Disney ride ratings , used for the most thrilling, advanced rides.  It has an elevation gain of 6,371 feet, a single tower between the base and top stations, the longest cable-car freespan in the world (10,541 feet), and ascends into the summit station like an elevator.  It does all of this in seven minutes.  Basically, it makes the Snowbird tram look like a tinker toy. I rode the old Zugspitze cable car in summer 2015 (see previous post Bavarian Climate Change and "Research" ) and wanted my son to see it while he was in Innsbruck, so we went up there today.  It took a crowbar to get the wallet open to cover the 58 euro round trip cost (per person), but I have to say it was worth every penny.  Leaving the base station, you just stare up...

My son has been here for about eleven days and we've been absolutely skunked by the weather.  I had big plans for ski touring and alpine skiing with him, but on the days I haven't had to work, the weather has often been cloud and rainy/snowy depending on elevation.  Snow sounds good, but it's not great here due to the lack of trees at higher elevation, which means lousy visibility. Today we decided to roll the dice on the weather and try skiing at Hintertux Glacier, which is Austria's only year-round ski area, open 365 days a year.  Lifts extend upwards 5700 vertical feet to a top elevation of 10,663 feet, although today you could only ski down to 6250 feet, for a drop of about 4,400 vertical feet.  Not too shabby.  Hintertux is less than 30 km (18 miles) from Innsbruck as the crow flies, but about 90 minutes by car or 2.5 hours by train and bus.  After 4 months of public transit, I rented a car for this trip.  As I mentioned it was a roll the di...