Tuesday, 12 August 2008

BARRINGTON TOPS SNOW CHASE

From: Barrington Tops, Written by: Grant Burgess

http://raymondterrace.hunterweather.com/

Accompanied by Julie Burgess (mum)

Decent cold fronts moving thru NSW of late have seen snow fall over much of the tablelands to reasonable depths. The last front to move thru was strong though the majority of the moisture was restricted to the southern half of NSW.

With atmospheric temperatures at the 850hPa level (~1500m) being around 0°C for the last few days in the area, I was confident there would have been minimal snow melt higher up & felt there was still a 90% chance that I would see some sort of accumulation still around – the amount though was unknown. Having heard little recently in the way of snow in the Barrington Tops I decided on a rare free day to venture up & take a look for myself.

We come across our first ice in the form of icicles at 1270m just below the Dingo gate. Not having seen a spec of snow up till now had me thinking – but I still knew we had a fair way to rise so I still remained confident. Temperature here at 1350 according to the car thermometer (pretty accurate I’ve found) was 6°C.

I spotted our first small patch of snow at ~1350m just the other side of the pine plantation. Snow from here onwards thickened impressively with only slight elevation increases.

Arrived at Polblue at 1410 (~1460m) with an air temperature on the car of 2°C (measured 2.5°C in the community shelter shortly after). Snow here was patchy but reasonably deep – particularly in the longer grass.

Above 1500m saw a cover of at least 5cm which appeared to be un-broken. Temp was 1°C most of the way above 1500m & 3°C & below above 1300m.

Arrived at Devils Hole with still a light but patchy cover.

Another side to our chase was the friendly wildlife around Polblue. The kookaburra in that shot actually flew directly at me the first time we met in order to steal my sandwich! He almost succeeded LOL.

All in all a very satisfying chase!