Snow 1.mp4
Red foxes are one of the most ubiquitous carnivore species across the northern hemisphere, in no small part because of their adaptability in what and how they eat. In the clip above, you can see a fox and its kit gnawing at an unidentified piece of food, possibly scavenged from a nearby human settlement. They are also known to scavenge the kills of larger carnivores like snow leopards, a risky move that can see the fox injured or killed.
Snow 1.mp4
In both instances where researchers found a dead fox near a carcass, snow leopards were either seen or verified to have been present by GPS and camera traps. While there are known reports of foxes being killed by carnivores such as wolves and lynxes, to our knowledge, these are the first accounts of foxes killed while scavenging from a snow leopard kill.
Interestingly, while scavenging poses a risk to the fox, we have seen enough evidence of them present (and not dead) at other snow leopard kills to believe that scavenging holds the potential for a protein-rich reward. However, as these observations show, it can be a risky business for the scavenger, a risk that it is presumably willing to take.
We are excited to announce that we are the recipient of a Ski - Doo Snow P.A.S.S. Grant. The Ski-Doo Snow P.A.S.S. grant is awarded to snow mobile clubs in North America to help the clubs and their members. The P.A.S.S. stands for Protect. Access. Sustain. Support.
Cloud cover will increase overnight with patchy fog possible. Consider Friday the calm before the storm, a cloudy day with any rain/snow chances holding off until the evening. The storm currently over the southwestern part of the country will travel through northern Indiana and southeastern Michigan Saturday. -content/uploads/2020/12/Midwest-Radar-1.mp4 The forecast track of the incoming storm puts most of Northern Michigan in line for substantial snowfall. The National Weather Service has issued Winter Storm Watches, including all of Northeast Michigan. These watches cover the incoming snowstorm beginning Friday night and lasting until early Sunday.
Saturday: A messy day with several inches of snow and increasing winds. Snow gets heavier and winds become stronger in the afternoon/evening. Temperatures will start off near 30 degrees predawn. Afternoon highs will be near 34 degrees.
While intimidating mountains like Everest and 2K tend to dominate our perceptions of the region, the Himalayas are rich in biodiversity. Climates range from tropical at the base of the mountains to perennial snow and ice at the highest elevations. These complex and diverse eco-regions are interconnected: an ecological threat to one is ultimately a threat to many. Here are just a few examples of Himalayan ecology:
Western alpine shrubs and meadows can be found between 9,850 and 16,400 ft. These areas tend to have cold winters and mild summers that allow for plant growth. Rhododendron plants cover the lower shrublands, while the alpine meadows, directly above, host a range of flora in the warmer months. Animals found in this region include the snow leopard, Himalayan tahr, musk deer, and pikas.
The Himalayas are the third largest deposit of ice and snow in the world, after Antarctica and the Arctic. There are approximately 15,000 glaciers located throughout the range. At 48 miles (72 km) in length, the Himalayan Siachen glacier is the largest glacier outside the poles.
Are you a Denver-based Ikon Pass holder? RSVP here for an exclusive in-person workout on Sunday, October 10 at Compass Fitness. Meet other local pass holders for a ski and snowboard specific workout and a chance to win Broncos tickets and a three-month Compass Fitness online membership, so you can continue your training well into the start of ski season.
In Kazakhstan, the irbis, another name for the snow leopard, inhabits the Tien Shan Mountains, Dzhungarsky Alatau Mountains, Saur, and Tarbagatai Mountains within East Kazakhstan, Almaty, Zhambyl and South Kazakhstan Regions.
The animation below, shows infrared geostationary data, displaying cold brightness temperatures (ranging from -30C to -50C, light-to-dark blue and green colors) moving over the Upper Midwest. Notice how the cold air advection moves slowly southward, and appears slightly different in texture than cloud cover; cold air appears more smooth and uniform, than the rough, defined features of cloud cover. Additionally, cloud cover also develops and dissipates quickly over time, albeit, shows similar brightness temperatures to near-surface cold air. Note how the cold air extends all the way south to the Missouri/Iowa border, then stars to recede northward, when daytime solar heating begins (13Z, 30 January 2019). The cold air extent also matches approximately to the snow cover extent observed by the VIIRS Snow Cloud Discriminator.
A large low pressure system, slammed into the western United States (US), bringing heavy rain and snow, high winds, along with producing blizzards (for the Sierra Nevadas) and localized flooding for low-lying areas.
In this case, as Winter Storm Harper approaches land, notice high concentrations of precipitable water between the surface-to-500mb (blue/aqua colors), and significantly lower precipitable water concentrations in the upper atmosphere (i.e. 500-300mb, grey to black colors). Also note an elongated atmospheric river on the southeast side of the low pressure system. The atmospheric river moved into and impacted south-central and southern California, where the Sierra Nevadas experienced heavy snowfall rates (up to 3 inches per hour) and high snow accumulations.
During the daytime hours GeoColor uses the visible band 2 with a true color background. A look at the GeoColor image at 1802 UTC on 10 Dec shows that it can be hard to distinguish snow from clouds or fog with the visible band during the daytime.
There are RGB products that can be used to help discriminate clouds from snow (such as the Day Snow/Fog product developed by EUMETSAT. CIRA has developed a product that also discriminates clouds and fog from snow but retains white as the color for the snow cover. The CIRA Snow/Cloud Layer Discriminator product for the same time as the image above is shown below.
The color scale is shown at the bottom of the image. This product is also experimental but should soon be available for AWIPS as well. In this version of the product there is a discrimination made between lower (water) clouds and higher (ice) clouds, adding additional information. This product is for use during the daytime hours, with the image for a couple of hours later showing some breaking up of the low clouds and fog in areas without snow cover but otherwise the low clouds and fog persisting, in fact through the day as shown in the GeoColor image for 2202 UTC. 041b061a72