The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~ Patrick Young
This is by no means an exhaustive list, rather, it’s a collection of favourite websites most useful for knowing what’s going on out there.
In winter, but not in summer, you can get a synopsis for the Coast Mountains from the WhistlerBlackcomb website (http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/forecast/index.htm). As much of our weather approaches from the west, you can get a good idea of what systems are in the offering for our area from this forecast. Generally, I find that precipitation amounts are slightly less than forecast for the Coast, freezing levels are slightly lower, and the systems arrive slightly later.
Webcams. You should check these webcams…nelsonpilots.ca/webcams there are several high elevation ones that will give you a good idea of what to expect… also check the weather forecast. here…https://www.avalanche.ca/weather/forecast
Red Mountain also gets a custom forecast in winter from the southeast fire centre, and during the ski hill operating season, you can find this custom forecast on the Red Mountain site.
Another winter-only weather forecast is Environment Canada’s high elevation forecast available here: http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/forecast/textforecast_e.html?Bulletin=fpcn68.cwvr. This gives predicted freezing levels and precipitation amounts and starts in October/November and ends on May 1.
Current Conditions: So now that you know what is supposed to happen, it’s good to know what actually is happening.
Red Mountain and Whitewater Ski Resort both have webcams that are operational during the winter months. Find these on their respective home pages.
Drive BC. (http://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/5.html) also has a series of webcams around the local area and you can also access remote weather station data (wind speed and direction, road temperature, and precipitation amount) here.
Unfortunately, although MoT (Ministry of Transport) has weather stations on ridge tops, the only data made publicly available is from the roadside monitoring stations. Note that wind speed and direction are for the valley and, as such, are highly influenced by local topography. Also, precipitation amounts are in water equivalents. An average conversion for water equivalent to snow is 1 mm water equivalent equals 1 cm snow.
The CAA has a series of links to other remote data loggers on their website (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/pre-trip-planning/weather/real-time-weather-dataloggers).
None of these are in the West Kootenays, but they do provide some useful information.
Freezing Levels/Precipitation/Wind Speed and Direction: Knowing the freezing level can mean the difference between a day of great powder skiing versus a miserable day spent soaked to the bone while skiing elephant snot. Information on forecast wind speed and direction is also useful for avoiding wind slabs and choosing destinations that are appropriate to the current conditions. Some useful sites for this type of information are:
http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/Latest/gfa/anglais/Latest-gfacn31_turbc_000-e.html, where you’ll find current and forecast (6 and 12 hours) freezing level data;
http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/cgibin/AfficherFDFL180.pl?Langue=anglais&hreFdcn01=2004+02+20+06+UTC&hreFdcn02= 2004+02+20+12+UTC&rwt_uprWindsCharts180=fdcn02-090&hreFdcn03=2004+02+21+00+UTC&Region=OUEST, has wind speed and direction at 2,800 metres;
http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/jetstream_pac_h12_00.gif, more wind speed and direction data this time at the 300 bar (about 9,000 metres ASL) level, which is pretty much the jet stream winds;
http://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/weather/10_day.cgi is another NOAA product with precipitation amounts, minimum and maximum temperatures, and freezing levels for the entire Columbia basin.
Imagery: For the real weather geeks, there is great satellite imagery available on the web. The GOES-West imagery has a series of infrared satellite images with isobars and the current systems superimposed over the top. At http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/sathts_pac_snd_00.gif, you’ll find the sea level data, while
http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/sathts_pac_500_00.gif has data from the 500 mbar level (about 5,500 metres) which is the upper-level flow pretty much unaffected by topography.
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/cgi-bin/latest.cgi?fronts-ir shows the current systems and fronts overlaid the satellite imagery, and
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~ovens/loops/wxloop.cgi?fronts_ir+/48h/ has a time-sequenced version.
NOAA has visible and infrared imagery available for our area at
http://sat.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/loopsat.php?wfo=pdt&area=nw&type=vis&size=4 for visible satellite imagery and http://sat.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/loopsat.php?wfo=pdt&area=nw&type=ir&size=4, for the infrared (and I find more useful) imagery.
There is also some very cool microwave imagery available at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/realtime/tpw2/epac/main.html which quite clearly shows the tropical moisture feed we get going with a pineapple express.
If all this is way too geeky, Environment Canada has a nice simple diagram of the major systems at http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/jet_stream/index_e.html.
Another favourite, that is very specific to our local area comes from the Weather Network at http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/maps/?ref=topnav_weatherindex_maps, which shows past and predicted precipitation and seems to be remarkably accurate.
Canadian Avalanche Assoc. The CAA has also gathered together a bunch of useful sites on their webpage (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/pre-tripplanning/weather) where they also have a tutorial on understanding the various satellite imagery.
Spend an afternoon wandering around the web visiting these (and other) sites and pretty soon you’ll find yourselves hooked on the weather.
Useful Weather info from the Internet
by Chris Cowan
As most of us are aware, weather is a key factor in the enjoyment of the outdoors. Here are some questions that come up all the time in winter. What’s it like up at the XC ski area? Is the snow any good? Paulson xc doesn’t have cell phone coverage, and the report is generally a day old, and things may well have changed. How much new snow is there up at the pass? What is the condition of it? How is it likely to change in the next couple of days, like between now and my planned trip on Saturday? Here are some of the sites I use, that give me useful info on what to expect. Because, being the weather, It will likely be different from what it was a few days ago when you were there…..or maybe it won’t.
Drivebc.ca. Current temperature, snowfall since the last measurement, and the previous 12 hours, snow depth. Camera. If there’s snow on the trees…. Good sign. You may notice if it’s melted off. Not a good sign if there’s been snowfall recently. The road often melts when the snow isn’t melting, since they’re using salt on it.
U of Washington Weather Radar composite https://www.atmos.washington.edu/weather/radar.shtml tells you if it’s precipitating, and where the precipitation is. Takes a bit of interpretation/ interpolation. The West Kootenay falls between the Spokane and Silverstar radar, so precipitation in this area sometimes doesn’t show up all that well…You can interpolate in the gap. Doesn’t tell you if it’s snowing or raining. There are other ones like intellicast that have an algorithm that does.
Satellite imagery Pacific infrared image from U of W. Shows you what’s coming at us from the Pacific. The colour is the cloud top temperature, or surface temperature if there’s no cloud. The thicker the cloud, the colder it is, generally, but most of the juice is in the lower half of the atmosphere. https://atmos.washington.edu/~ovens/wxloop.cgi? ir_common_full+12
Pacific Visible Image… Great for during the day. Easier to interpret than the IR. https://atmos.washington.edu/~ovens/wxloop.cgi? vis_common+12
More U W Weather loops…Geek out if you feel the urge for more weather info… https://atmos.washington.edu/~ovens/loops/ (Geek Alert) I use this page every day for a quick and dirty look at what the model projections are. Useful things are the precipitation envelope on the surface panel, and the 850 millibar temperature, which basically tells you where the freezing level is going to be. The models are very good at the upper levels! 850 millibars is approximately 5k feet or 1500 metres (Strawberry Pass!) http://mp1.met.psu.edu/~fxg1/ewall.html GFS is the American model. CMC is the Canadian one. They’re generally available around 8 PM in the evening for the 00z run, and the same time in the morning for the 12Z one. One hour later in daylight saving time.
spotwx.com. You pick out a spot, choose a model, and get the projections for how much precipitation, temperature, sometimes freezing level, winds (not reliable) etc for the spot you pick. Remember that the spots are model heights, and the model smooths the terrain, so check out the model height you picked and correct the temperature for the difference as best you can. The average lapse rate is about 5 deg per km but it varies from 10 deg/km (summer or behind cold fronts) to inversionary. The really nice thing about spots is that you can get a login name and it will remember the points you’ve chosen for your model output. Also, remember that the long-range models like the GFS and Global tend to overdo the precip a little bit.
avalanche.ca/weather/forecast If you want a good weather discussion of ski weather for the week ahead… you can’t do much better. Nice graphics, and enthusiasm. Some nice educational videos from David Jones, of EC, as well. I’ve not mentioned avi hazard here. Obviously the more it snows, the more hazard, more so if it warms up and there are weak layers buried. Beyond that, I defer to the Avi experts and daily bulletins.
