Operations on January 4th

Today's Lake Effect event turned into quite a show for the team tonight, as what was forecast to be a weak event turned out to be a decently organized snow event, with close to a foot falling on campus. Deploying sometime around 3 today, the team set out to Fair Haven, NY with the DOW, a Probe Vehicle, and a majority of the team's personnel, while a few students stayed back at campus to launch weather balloons in and around the band.

Around 4 PM the lake effect band was over Oswego.  The students back at campus released multiple rawindsondes from 4 PM to 12 AM.  At 8:30 PM the edge of the band came over our location in Fair Haven.  From 8:30 to 12:30 some students collected snow samples.  The snow fell at approximately 2 inches per hour in Fair Haven while Oswego got over a foot of snow!

Today's event gave the research team a lot of great data. Some small scale phenomena were observed by the DOW that would never be seen by the National Weather Service's radar. Small swirls (possibly waterspouts) and a larger circulation (possibly a mesoscale low) were seen. The weather balloon team also reported some great results. All and all we could not be happier.


Here are some photos from the day:

The Team arriving at our scan point in Fair Haven:

Dr. Steiger meeting with students and discussing the plans for the operation:

The band while it was still weaker and farther north:

The band as it moved farther south and intensified (and as the sun was going down):

Dr. Steiger and Senior Brett Rathbun in the DOW, observing data with the DOW operators (who are off camera to the left):

Some photos of Campus after our return, over a foot has fallen and it is still snowing:

Also, check out a story WSYR 9 out of Syracuse did on the research team tonight:

http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Doppler-on-wheels-deployed-during-Oswego-snowfall/O3r3FNKBvUCui-fcEyoNQA.cspx

 The Sounding Team!

Preparing to launch a Sounding. Left to right: Sophomore Robert Schrom, Dr. Skubis, and Freshman Jake Mulholland

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At 3:55 pm the first of the four soundings were launched, which occurred soon after the first few snowflakes were seen. Within the first hour there were 4 lightning strikes as well as thunder. There was at least one lightening strike that was a bright pink. All of the lightning strikes were observed on the southern edge of the band. Small pellet size snowflakes fell soon after the thunder was heard, which increased the snowfall rate.  The snowfall rate was 2 inches per hour and in some cases, it was a little more. Snow measurements were taken every half hour as well as the wind speed. The maximum wind speed was recorded at 4:10 pm as well as the first lightning strike. By 1 am Wednesday morning, nearly 11 inches of snow had fallen and the last sounding was launched.  Pictures were taken of the snowflakes that fell through the air. A mix of dendrites and pellets were recorded in some cases, but the majority of the snowflakes were dendrites.