I am pleased to announce that two of the tools that ASARC has been working on over this spring and summer are now released to the public.

The first is Arfi, the Avalanche Research Forecasting Interface. It collects many items such as webcams, weather stations, and models into one map-driven interface for Canadian avalanche information. It is currently in Beta and will be for the season 2010-2011. Supported browsers are Firefox and Chrome.

The second is GSWarm, a GIS map based implementation of the warming model SWarm. You can see warming projected over real terrain with shading. Currently Rogers Pass is released, with other areas coming soon. Terrain overlays work in Firefox and Chrome.

Although they are currently being hosted on this site (thesnowpit.com) this may soon change. So, please use the links above which re-direct via www.ucalgary.ca/asarc as these are permanent links.

Enjoy. Feedback welcome.

Well, as the temperatures are reaching -5C and snow pervades the outside world, winter has arrived. Already, we have interesting conditions, as one would expect.

The season opened with a few early season crusts starting with one on November 2 and a few others after (from Jasper's Nov 20 Forecast):

Several crusts are present in the snowpack. The recent cold temperatures and absence of new snow have increased stability however field observations have not been conducted to assess the bonds between these layer.

Glacier NP have been partially closed for active control, with surface hoar widely observed (from Glacier's Nov 20 Forecast):

Surface hoar has formed from valley bottom all the way up to mountaintop, a condition to bear in mind with successive snowfalls.

Patches of 9mm surface hoar has also been observed in Jasper, but no mention of it in Banff or Waterton's postings. The cold temperatures and humidity kept the roads wet and then icy here in Calgary, and I observed surface hoar in the park near home this morning. Yee-haw!

Well, winter has officially started. Mount Baldy has opened (always a sign that snow is indeed everywhere) and it is dumping in Mammoth and all the way along the entire Sierra. Sue Burak ended last season with a fitting quote for the fickleness of its thin and icy poor showing (for comparison, last season 2006-2007 was one of the driest, and the previous season to that 2005-2006 was one of the largest ever):

Preparing and writing advisories has been the focal point of my life since late November. Collecting field data and writing snowpack and avalanche discussions in December, January and early February was much more difficult than writing about the dynamic, ever changing conditions of last season. Persistent depth hoar and a faceted weak snowpack kept things interesting for the local snow nerds who were sure all heck would break loose when the February storm dumped almost 3 feet of snow. We were proved wrong which brings to mind a quote from Richard Feynman who earned a Nobel Prize for his discoveries of quantum physics: "If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part."

Given that start, it seems especially interesting that we already have depth hoar and ground slides. From Sue's Dec 20 forecast (yes, we live in the future):

It is important to note that the Mammoth Mountain ski patrol had an active control day today. Many avalanches went to the ground on 4-8 inches of depth hoar. There were many natural avalanches that occurred during the storm.

Despite this, it seems as though the early season is still stretching its legs and anchoring itself to the ground. Tahoe still reports the danger as low, and has only 15-18" between this and the other major storm system a week and a half ago. Yosemite reported nearly 20" after the completion of that storm on Dec 8th. Thin yet, but promising. Thank you to everyone at the centers for all your hard work. Hopefully we'll have a white enough holiday to get out there in the new year on skis - two years is much too long to wait.