Tag Archives: snow

Change of Guardian, Snow

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I got a ride out to Race Rocks today with Erik to start my winter shift.  Pedder Bay was covered in ice up to around the college’s main docks.  Courtney updated me on operating procedures and returned with Erik. There was supposed to be a chimney cleaner coming too but it has been snowing since this morning and it was too slippery.

Chunk was in the water by the jetty when we arrived and came up the ramp. He is so big that i thought it was the alpha male, Misery, at first. The scars, from getting chewed up by Misery, are visible on his back.

The snow stopped before sunset so I cleaned off the solar panels. The tilted panels were partly clear whereas the horizontal panels had accumulated about an inch of snow.

Winter’s Chilly Lash

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Strong Northeasterly winds have buffeted the island for the last 4 days bringing snow, hail and breaking waves over the jetty. The Steller Sea Lions returned to their perch on the South Rocks last night, perhaps now that the worst of the cold has passed. The Phocids (the family name for seals; in our case Harbour and Elephant) seem pretty much immune to the cold. Phocids are able to divert blood flow to their blubber layer to help control their temperatures.

photos 1,3,4: Helene Cyr

Squall the newborn elephant seal seems to be doing well. His fur is thick, I suppose to make up for his lack of blubber. I refer to it as a male but since true seals have retractable nipples, internal testicles and an internal penis sheath for streamlining it is difficult to determine gender.  He sure is cute though…

Two adult males engaging in vocalization threat displays….. Big Nose wins!

Misery likes snow

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Misery has been going back and forth between Great Race and Middle Rocks as of late. It was easy to see his return here yesterday and track his progress through the snow! His movement around the island left a long, winding, 139cm-wide icy path. The low friction of the snow aided his progress and he seemed to delight burrowing his trunk in the snow banks and cover him back with snow scooped up by his front flippers.

Snow storm sets in.

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Today  a heavy snow storm set in on the island . Not very likely that anyone would be out side snapping pictures , but Pam from England recorded some great images using the remote camera 5. One shows the elephant seal “Ninene “trying to cope with this unseasonal onset.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/sets/72157614832586736/

Here are a few examples of her images from cam5:

Winter for Slash:2008

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A wintery day at Race Rocks and Ryan takes a few pictures of Slash

See other pictures Ryan Murphy has taken at Race Rocks

 

See the file on Slash

See the Elephant seal Index File

 

Snow as an Abiotic factor at Race Rocks

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Every few decades, Victoria receives very large snowfalls, including the more than 100 cm (39 in) of snow that fell in December 1996. On the other hand, roughly one third of winters will see virtually no snow, with less than 5 cm (2 in) falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. For Victoria Harbour, the climate records report annual mean snowfall totalling 29.3 cm ( about a foot) falling on 8 days..The Environment Canada website lists Victoria ( Airport ) as the city having the fewest snow days of all cities in Canada (10) The mildest winter (7.4 degrees average) and the lowest snowfall (43.8 cm.)The headlines in the Victoria Times for November 27, 2006 read :

“Snow shutdown
Schools closed, buses delayed
Victoria Times-Colonist
Published: Monday, November 27, 2006
Snow has shut down much of Greater Victoria.
Public schools in Saanich, Victoria and Sooke are closed, as are many private schools and the region’s major post-secondary institutions, including University of Victoria, Royal Roads University and Camosun College. “
The snowstorm of November 26, 2006 can be traced from the Victoria harbour data on the Environment Canada website. Here it can be seen that the snow started on the morning of November 26 and continued until early morning of the next day. It snowed again midday on the 29th of November . The temperature that week took an unseasonal plunge.

On Race Rocks our weather station recorded the windchill from the North East pushing the temperature down to minus 13 degrees Celsius

The blue bar represents rainfall, with the scale in mm.on the left. The green line is humidity. After Sunday, the freezing temperature prevented the instrument from registering rain. for several days. Due to blowing snow, it is unlikely that all snow that fell was measured..

Wind speed is the purple line, and barometer is the blue line. Note how the barometer plunged just as the snowstorm started. The wind remained high for most of the week. This graph represents the surface wind profile. At the top of the tower it averaged 10-15 knots higher.

THE ABIOTIC EFFECTS OF SNOW:

Our second snowfall for the year arrived on January 10, 2007. Pam Birley took this photo for us. This was unusual for Victoria as we had been smugly assuming that we had already had our share of snow that stayed for a week for the winter.

No research has been done at Race Rocks on the effects of snow on the animal and plant life other than the observation that the birds disappeared while these severe storm events were in progress. It is also almost impossible to access Race Rocks during a snowstorm since the wind blows in from the north-east and the exposure at the jetty prevents a boat from landing.

 

See the exercise on the water cycle

This image from the webcam in the November, 2006 snow storm showed a bleak landscape, with no seagulls in the usual spot. In a week they had all returned however, as mild temperatures returned.

The topic of SNOW ECOLOGY has not been extensively studied. One of the classic works on the topic was done by William Pruitt of the Department of Biology at the University of Manitoba.
This paper is available from the TAIGA BIOLOGICAL STATION THESES AND RESEARCH PAPERS
( Formozov-inspired Concepts in Snow Ecology in North America. Bulletin Moscow Society of Naturalists, vol.104, No.3:pp.13-22. William 0. Pruitt, Jr.)

Records of snowfall from 1985 to February 1996 may be found on the Environment Canada Website Search that website for total snowfalls during that period click on British Columbia/advanced search/ then enter Race Rocks in the Search by Station Name section. Use the pull down menues to find the year, month or day of interest

In nearby Metchosin, by November 27, 2006, over 40 cm of snow blanketed the forests and farms. A week later, the snow had all but disappeared. Considerable damage to tree branches was sustained during this snowfall.

slash back– snow 5.5cm

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Jan 3 2004: I see today that Mike has camera3 aimed at an elephant seal – This adult male must have moved up on the lawn behind the boathouse to get out of the northern gale today. This is probably the one who recovered from the encounter with the boat last year. (Slash) ( see in the marine mammals video archive.) On camera 1 today there is a male and several females out on the middle rock . Precipitation is snow 5.5 cm

with the blowing snow and NE wind at 30+ knts.

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March 2,2003: The 2 Elephant Seals still spending most of the day hauled out on Gr. Race,the one that had been injured prefers an inland spot while the other one favours the boat ramp.We hear them after midnight,they can be quite noisy going and returning from feeding.

March 5,2003: The 2 Elephant Seals are still hauled out, the ‘roamer has stayed tucked in behind the boat house out of the wind.The other has become a fixture by the boat house door.

March 6, 2003: They tied their boat at the outer end of the dock, maybe a little intimidated by the Elephant Seal stretched out on the ramp,but most likely they didn’t want to disturb him. He is actually very docile especially if you approach him slowly and carefully.

March 7,2003: Both Elephant Seals still hauled out most of the day,one on the ramp and the other a bit restless today moving from place to place,ended up behind the boat house.

March 8, 2003: The Elephant Seals took to the water which at 7.4? would be warmer than the air at 0? with the blowing snow and NE wind at 30+ knts.

March 10, 2003: The 2 Elephant Seals hauled out all day in their usual spots.

March 13, 2003: he one Elephant Seal we call the roamer did not haul out today but the other big fellow moved up out of the way of the swells on the ramp and spent the whole day with his nose literally pressed against the boat house door

so cold,wet and windy—Snow Trace!

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Monday, May 06, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 8.1 C  Min. 1.9 C  Reset 7.3 C Rain 2.0 mm  Snow Trace  Yes Snow in May what next
MARINE LIFE: 1 mature and 1 juvenile bald eagle. Felt sorry for the birds this morning – so cold,wet and windy.The weather did improve and by mid afternoon it felt much more like spring.
HUMAN INTERACTION: 1 pleasure craft, 2nd Nature through the reserve.Station boat, trip to Pedder Bay and back late afternoon.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 8:40 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Cloudy  Vis 15 Miles  Wind South West 22 Knots  Sea 3 Foot Moderate
posted by Carol or Mike S at 5:59 AM

Light snow

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Tuesday, January 29, 2002
Good Evening
TEMPERATURE: Max. 2.5C Min. 0.0C Reset 1.1C Rain 3.0 mm — Snow 2.0 cm Total Precipitation 5.0 mm
MARINE LIFE: 14 Bald Eagles -all mature- arrived as usual early a.m. but gradually left as the weather deteriorated in the late morning.The snow showers were heavy enough at times to activate the fog horn, however the ground was too warm for the snow to accumulate.5 mature eagles returned as the weather cleared and stayed for most of the afternoon.
HUMAN INTERACTION: at 1:25 pm 1 tour boat came through the reserve.
posted by Carol or Mike S at 6:06 PM
Good Morning
WEATHER: Sky Overcast Vis. 1 1/2 Miles – Light Snow  Wind North East 5 Knots  Sea Rippled
posted by Carol or Mike S at 7:42 AM