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Local Microclimates of the Wasatch Front and Olympic Venues. John Horel, Jonathan Slemmer*, Mike Splitt NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction,* CWSU ZLC. Has “this” ever happened before?. Overview. What is the “normal” weather for February/March?
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Local Microclimates of the Wasatch Front and Olympic Venues John Horel, Jonathan Slemmer*, Mike Splitt NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction,* CWSU ZLC
Has “this” ever happened before? Overview • What is the “normal” weather for February/March? • Interplay of synoptic/mesoscale weather systems and local terrain • Preparing for media and public interest in the weather during the Olympics • Monitoring weather during the Olympics: www.met.utah.edu/olympics Is it very common to have so many hours in a row of …?
March SLC February/March 500 mb Height Zonal Average Removed SLC February
Dense fog • Downslope winds • Gap flows Local Weather Hazards • Orographic snow • Lake effect snowbands
What’s the difference in precipitation between the valleys and mountains? Annual Precipitation: NRCS (in)
How does snowfall vary during the winter ? Monthly Snowfall: 1948-2000 Snowfall (Inches)
How often do strong fronts move through the Wasatch Front? February- 1+ strong front per year March- 2+ strong fronts per year
How often is there heavy snowfall? During the Olympic period, 2 periods of 7 consecutive hours of moderate/heavy snowfall
How often is there strong wind? During the Olympic period, 2 years with more than 24 consecutive hours of winds > 20 mph
How often is there dense fog/stable conditions? 1 Occurrence of 13 consecutive hours of dense fog
What’s the chance for fog during Opening/Closing Ceremonies? Higher chance of stable period for Opening Ceremonies than Closing Ceremonies
Is this year unusually cold? For the Olympic period, 18 of 24 h were below freezing during 1989; 3 of 24 h during 1992
The Olympic region Park City Alpine GS, Snowboard GS Snowboard Half Pipe Snowbasin Downhill, Combined, Super-G Utah Olympic Park Bobsled, Luge, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined Deer Valley Alpine Slalom, Aerials, Moguls Soldier Hollow: Cross Country, Biathlon, Nordic Combined
OGP SB2 SWI SNI SB1 • Wildcat-SWI • MidBowl- SNI • Strawberry Base- SB2 • Ogden Peak- OGP • Strawberry Top- SB2 Snowbasin- Downhill Venue SBB • Mt. Allen- SBB • John Paul- SBW • Shooting Star- SSS • Base- SBE SBB SBW SBB SSS SBE SBE SBE
Park City- Snowboard/Grand Slalom • Base- PCB • Eagle- PCS • Summit- PCT • Jupiter- PKC • Golf Course- SNC PKC PCS PCB PCT SNC
Deer Valley: Aerial/Slalom/Moguls • Burns- DVE • Bald Eagle- DVB • Bald Mtn- MBY • Empire Peak- EMP • Daly West- SNV MBY EMP DVB SNV DVE
Utah Olympic Park C99 • Venue Stations • Bear Upper- WBU • Bob Lower- WBE • Bob Upper- WBS CLK WBU WBE WBS
Wind Variations on the Ski Jump Slope September 28-29 2001 Top-bottom- Black; Blue; Green; Red Upslope Downslope
Stadium Soldier Hollow- Cross Country/Biathlon Venue WMH • Venue Stations • Stadium- WMP • Whale’s Tail- WM2 • West Slope- WMH • Valley- WMG WM2 WMP WMG
Snow Temperature Photo: Al Bello/ALLSPORT)
Monitoring the Weather During the Olympics • 24/7 Monitoring of weather observations • Special weather summaries • 12-h snowfall/precipitation totals from venues • Daily summary of weather at venues and Olympic region • Weather history of the Olympics • Evaluation/validation of model guidance • Impact of weather upon the Games