There was a great visual example of the seeder-feeder effect this morning over the central Wasatch. The seeder-feeder effect involves the fallout of precipitation from seeder cloud aloft into a lower-level cloud generated by flow over a mountain barrier. This can result in the growth of ice crystals that originated in the seeder cloud as they fall through the feeder cloud, leading to precipitation enhancement over the mountains, as illustrated schematically below.
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| Source: Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth |
Below is a photo I took about 7:10 AM MDT this morning. Thin, mid level "seeder" clouds were producing falling ice crystals aloft. These crystals then fell into a feeder cloud associated with orographic lift over the central Wasatch.
At this time, precipitation rates were very like and I suspect if you were on, for example, Lone Peak you probably would have noticed just a few flakes. Nevertheless, this is a nice illustration of what happens during seeder-feeder, which during precipitation events often can't be "seen" without the use of a radar.
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