1. The Foothills Climate Array Manda Adams Shawn Marshall Shannon Fargey

2. Motivation for FCA The local climate of southwestern Alberta is dominated by mesoscale processes The primary objective of the FCA is to characterize the spatial-temporal patterns of meteorological variability and to develop physically-based models of the controls of topography and surface environment on surface weather patterns. Insights from the FCA will be used to develop improved climate downscaling strategies, climate change impact assessments, and boundary-layer process parameterizations in regional climate models

3. Foothills Climate Array

4. Cross-section of study area

5. Instrumentation

6. Station Elevations

7. Instrumentation FCA station Veriteq temperature-humidity datalogger HOBO tipping bucket rain gauge

8. 0.85 moose

9. 2.5m 1.5m 2.0m Mountain Stations Farm Stations

10. Data Quality – some issues... attack of the horse death by avalanche taken out by cows serious clog by birds

11. Automatic Weather Stations 5 full met stations –Incoming radiation –Pressure –Wind Speed and Direction –Sonic Snow Depth Simpson AWS – West of Cochrane Elbow AWS – Near Elbow Falls (Kananaskis Country)

13. A Tale of 2 Sites Site 530 –Elevation 1164m –Latitude: 50.9098 –Longitude: -114.315 Site 538 –Elevation 946m –Latitude: 50.9359 –Longitude: -113.703 Distance Between: 42km

14. Temperature

15. Relative Humidity

16. Rain Events

18. Convective Events 2005

19. Examples of the variability in Convective Rain Events

20. Relating Surface Variables

21. Contributions to UNSTABLE Prairie stations: change sampling strategy –Require: 1 grad student Operational Running of UW-NMS and/or WRF in support of IOPs –Require: programmer or grad student

23. UW-NMS

25. SPC

26. Science Questions well suited for the FCA Under what conditions do t-storms generated in the central Alberta Foothills intensify and move southeast over the Calgary area? Can the influence of mesoscale circulations and boundaries be seen in the severe weather climatology of the region?

27. Questions? Contact Information: Manda Adams manda.adams@ucalgary.ca Funding provided by: Canadian Foundation for Innovation Alberta Science and Research and Investments Project