Moving landscape, pictures of ground drift

FTLComm - Tisdale - January 7, 1999

No matter how long you live on the great western plains of North America the phenomena of gently drifting snow is one of the things that captures our attention and wonder. To get images of the event for others who have never seen such a thing is difficult indeed.

On Wednesday afternoon the right speed of wind was established, actually more snow is moved with a light wind then a high wind as it deposits as it flows along the ground in what we all refer to as a ground drift. Under some circumstances the snow crystals with all their delicate edges knocked off begin to form drifts and on roadways horizontal to the flow, these are called "finger" drifts.

Interestingly enough, the greatest danger when this is occurring is not the moving snow or visibility problems that .

might arise, but rather the dramatic decrease in temperature. When these pictures were taken the temperature was a modest -24 Celsius but with the twelve knots of wind that is an equivalent temperatures of lower then -40 and exposed skin will turn solid in less then a minute.

These pictures were intended for people in climates where snow is never seen and I will try to get some images of drifting and other snow movements as the winter progresses.

As always I would appreciate feedback from visitor who see these images.

The picture above is looking North around 2:00 PM Wednesday and you can see the town of Tisdale in the distance about a mile away while below about two miles South we are looking due South and the ground drift is obscuring the highway.


*FTLComm - Tisdale - January 7, 1999*
No matter how long you live on the great western plains of North America the phenomena of gently drifting snow is one of the things that captures our attention and wonder. To get images of the event for others who have never seen such a thing is difficult indeed. On Wednesday afternoon the right speed of wind was established, actually more snow is moved with a light wind then a high wind as it deposits as it flows along the ground in what we all refer to as a ground drift. Under some circumstances the snow crystals with all their delicate edges knocked off begin to form drifts and on roadways horizontal to the flow, these are called "finger" drifts. Interestingly enough, the greatest danger when this is occurring is not the moving snow or visibility problems that .
	might arise, but rather the dramatic decrease in temperature. When these pictures were taken the temperature was a modest -24 Celsius but with the twelve knots of wind that is an equivalent temperatures of lower then -40 and exposed skin will turn solid in less then a minute. These pictures were intended for people in climates where snow is never seen and I will try to get some images of drifting and other snow movements as the winter progresses. As always I would appreciate feedback from visitor who see these images.

The picture above is looking North around 2:00 PM Wednesday and you can see the town of Tisdale in the distance about a mile away while below about two miles South we are looking due South and the ground drift is obscuring the highway.