1. John Horel, Jonathan Slemmer*, Mike Splitt NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction,* CWSU ZLC Local Microclimates of the Wasatch Front and Olympic Venues

2. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Overview What is the “normal” weather for February/March? –Interplay of synoptic/mesoscale weather systems and local terrain Preparing for media and public interest in the weather during the Olympics Monitoring weather during the Olympics: www.met.utah.edu/olympics Is it very common to have so many hours in a row of …? Has “this” ever happened before?

3. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Olympic Climate Information

4. www.met.utah.edu/olympics February/March 500 mb Height Zonal Average Removed February SLC March

5. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Local Weather Hazards Orographic snow Lake effect snowbands Dense fog Downslope winds Gap flows

6. www.met.utah.edu/olympics What’s the difference in precipitation between the valleys and mountains? Annual Precipitation: NRCS (in)

7. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Snowfall (Inches) How does snowfall vary during the winter ? Monthly Snowfall: 1948-2000

8. www.met.utah.edu/olympics How often do strong fronts move through the Wasatch Front? February- 1+ strong front per year March- 2+ strong fronts per year

9. www.met.utah.edu/olympics How often is there heavy snowfall? During the Olympic period, 2 periods of 7 consecutive hours of moderate/heavy snowfall

10. www.met.utah.edu/olympics How often is there strong wind? During the Olympic period, 2 years with more than 24 consecutive hours of winds > 20 mph

11. www.met.utah.edu/olympics How often is there dense fog/stable conditions? 1 Occurrence of 13 consecutive hours of dense fog

12. www.met.utah.edu/olympics What’s the chance for fog during Opening/Closing Ceremonies? Higher chance of stable period for Opening Ceremonies than Closing Ceremonies

13. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Was the fog last winter unusual?

14. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Is this year unusually cold? For the Olympic period, 18 of 24 h were below freezing during 1989; 3 of 24 h during 1992

15. www.met.utah.edu/olympics The Olympic region Snowbasin Downhill, Combined, Super-G Utah Olympic Park Bobsled, Luge, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined Park City Alpine GS, Snowboard GS Snowboard Half Pipe Deer Valley Alpine Slalom, Aerials, Moguls Soldier Hollow: Cross Country, Biathlon, Nordic Combined

16. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Snowbasin- Downhill Venue Mt. Allen- SBB John Paul- SBW Shooting Star- SSS Base- SBE SBE SBB SBW SSS SBE Ogden Peak- OGP Strawberry Top- SB2 OGP SB2 Wildcat-SWI MidBowl- SNI Strawberry Base- SB2 SB1 SNI SWI SBE

17. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Park City- Snowboard/Grand Slalom Base- PCB Eagle- PCS Summit- PCT Jupiter- PKC Golf Course- SNC SNC PCB PCS PCT PKC

18. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Deer Valley: Aerial/Slalom/Moguls Burns- DVE Bald Eagle- DVB Bald Mtn- MBY Empire Peak- EMP Daly West- SNV DVE MBY DVB EMP SNV

19. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Venue Stations Bear Upper- WBU Bob Lower- WBE Bob Upper- WBS CLK C99 Utah Olympic Park WBSWBUWBE

20. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Wind Variations on the Ski Jump Slope

21. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Wind Variations on the Ski Jump Slope

22. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Wind Variations on the Ski Jump Slope September 28-29 2001 Top-bottom- Black; Blue; Green; Red Downslope Upslope

23. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Soldier Hollow- Cross Country/Biathlon Venue Venue Stations Stadium- WMPWMP Whale’s Tail- WM2WM2 West Slope- WMH Valley- WMG WM2WMPWMG WMH Stadium

24. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Snow Temperature Photo: Al Bello/ALLSPORT)

25. www.met.utah.edu/olympics How cold will it feel at the venues?

26. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Monitoring Weather Conditions during the Olympics

27. www.met.utah.edu/olympics Monitoring the Weather During the Olympics 24/7 Monitoring of weather observations Special weather summaries –12-h snowfall/precipitation totals from venues –Daily summary of weather at venues and Olympic region Weather history of the Olympics –Evaluation/validation of model guidance –Impact of weather upon the Games