Sunday, January 25, 2009

Wind and snow



Today’s pit was on a North-West aspect at 1020 metres. There is a lot of graupel within the new snowpack which helped to contribute to unstable windslab accumulations.

Graupel is quite common in Scotland. It is basically a snow crystal which becomes rimed whilst still in the atmosphere, often completely covering the original type of crystal. It is recognised by its rounded ball bearing type appearance and can be less than a millimetres in size. Because of its shape graupel can significantly contribute to an unstable snowpack