Thanks, Ken. "Consolidation" only takes place when there is a melting of the snow = compacting? Does this mean that areas in other parts of the country (Colorado) where there is not a high enough temp for melting until late in the season, the snow does not consolidate (thus, remains unmanageable for long periods of time?)
B
Ah, Consolidation is a very complex process, that I don't begin to understand well. Melting is potentially a part of the process, and it certainly is on the MMWT, where the daytime temps are so moderate. There is also sublimation, which is significant enough that the weather folks track it. Interesting to see how it varies, and temp varies in these time lapse records:
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.htm...y=1&units=eIn early Dec, the Sierra Snowpack averaged around 20 degrees. Now, it averages somewhere around 30 degrees (with local variation). It's heating up!
There are two primary sources of heat: solar radiation, which you know is present even on cloudy days, if you forget your sunscreen. Also, heat from the earth. Unless you are in a permafrost area, there is constant heat movement from the bottom of the snowpack. In addition, the snow surface changes. It falls white, but gets progressively dirtier, which absorbs more radiation, and then there are sastrugi, which apparently are part of all this, but which I don't particularly understand (local shadows reducing albedo?) Or, here is more than I want to know:
http://netfam.fmi.fi/SSS/pdf/Vihma.pdf
