Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 04/25/2011 - 21:33
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Carbon Balance in Warming and Drying Tundra

Hi Mr. Wood it's William from 6th period and I read your journal you posted about a week ago on snow. I saw how when you put a wind fence in the snow a large mound of snow collected on one side since the wind couldn't carry the snow past the fence. I wanted to know how much snow can collect there in a day and how long did it take for that mound to form? By the way, happy late birthday/Easter from Michelle and me! I hope you had a great birthday day! -William (from 6th period)

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 17:46

John Wood

William (and Michelle)Thanks for writing and for the birthday wishes. Good questions and good observations. So which way is the wind blowing? The snow around here usually begins to collect sometime during October and run until April. The amount of snow depends on the winds all winter and the amount of snow that falls. Dr. Natali has measured as much as 5 cm of snow collecting in one day. The winds pick up during January quite a bit.
Cheers,
Mr. Wood

Mon, 05/02/2011 - 22:27

Anonymous

Hi Mr. Wood this is William replying from 6th Period! Well I looked at the picture with the caption: "The snow fence causes the snow to deposit on one side" and i guessed that the wind was heading to the right of the picture (-->) and then maybe the wind smoothed it out into a hill but couldn't carry it because of the large mass. By the way sorry i haven't replied in about a week i forgot to come on the website but I'll start visiting more from today. Also, today was the Knott's Berry Farm field trip for band and top service point owners and it was very fun.-William

Tue, 05/03/2011 - 22:03

John Wood

Good to hear from you. Your thinking is good. The side of the fence with the most snow is the leeward side, away from the wind. Does that fit in to your thinking?Cheers,
Mr. Wood

Mon, 05/09/2011 - 20:28

Anonymous

Hi Mr. Wood it's William from period 6. I was actually thinking the side with the snow was the windward side since the snow would push against the fence when blown towards it, but not go past the fence leaving a mound of snow there. But by thinking that the snow was on the leeward side, then I had a simple thought that on the windward side the snow was blown away and the leeward side didn't lose much snow. Is that right?

Tue, 05/10/2011 - 08:48

John Wood

Now you are thinking. When the wind carries the snow up to the fence (from the windward side), the snow will travel over the fence where the wind is changed by the fence. The wind swirls around past the fence and loses the snow on the leeward side. As the snow piles up, the wind moves past that mound and piles more snow along the way. So how high is the snow pile?Mr. Wood

Tue, 05/10/2011 - 22:18

Anonymous

William here again from 6th period. (I'm happy I replied in only 1 or 2 days instead of every week ) Well seeing that in the picture where you are measuring the snow depth, i compared the pile of snow on the windward side to how tall you guys were. Since I couldn't find any measurements of height when i "skimmed" the journal I guessed that the person standing in the orange jacket on the right of the person with the black jacket (who was measuring depth) was about 5 to 6 feet tall and guessed that the snow pile on the leeward side was about 10 to 15 feet high. Is there a more accurate way of measuring this? By the way, how is it going in your expedition? Has your data so far let you hypothesize a conclusion?

Wed, 05/11/2011 - 07:48

John Wood

You are thinking too hard. Remember in class, I never ask you a question that you don't already know the answer to. So, how high is the snow pile? Answer- It's the same height as the fence. Once the wind is just above the fence it carries the snow right on by. Just for your information, the fence is about 1.3 meters high. (A little over 4 feet.) Does that make sense?Very good job!!
Mr. Wood

Wed, 05/11/2011 - 13:47

Anonymous

Looking at the picture above the one i was looking at with the Caption: "The snow fence causes the snow to deposit on one side" It the size of the fence. I was looking at the picture below it which looked different.-William from 6th period