Lake Superior

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Lake Superior

• North Shore Climate

Jim Zandlo State Climatology Office DNR-Waters
2008
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Snowfall Oct 2006 Apr 2007
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Lake Superior water levels
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August 31, 2006
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August 31, 2007
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August 31, 2008
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What will Climate Change bring?
Quinn Carmichae Superior Surf Club
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Let it snow!
Varley
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Let it snow!
Varley
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Climate DiagnosticsMeasurements, Quality
Control, and Preservation Minnesota

• Jim Zandlo
• State Climatology Office, DNR Waters
• Oct 2008

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Climate Diagnostics

• Data
• Diagnostic utility (tabular, graphs, maps)
• What is observed and where?
• QC
• Does data represent the climate accurately?
• Non-climatic influences
• examples
• fixes

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Ice out dates in Minnesota in your fathers
time was generally later than it has been in
recent decades. The ice out pattern for the most
recent 35-year period is shown along with the
pattern for the 35-year period before that time.
The small map between the maps of the 2 periods
shows the number of days that ice out has become
earlier.
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Average spacing of NWS stations is 30 miles by
design.Temperature and snow are also measured
at most of these sites.
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Design spacing for SWCD gages is every other
township (12 miles) or better.
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Distance to dataAll vs. National Weather Service
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Non-climatic influences

• Local climate change
• Equipment bias
• Site bias
• Measurement contamination
• Observational errors
• Transcription error (data entry)
• Time-of-observation bias
• Global climate change

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Non-climatic influences

• Local climate change
• Land-use
• Urbanization
• Forest regrowth, conversion
• Agricultural practice
• No-till
• Irrigation or not

http//duckwater.bu.edu/urban/sprawl.jpg
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Non-climatic influences

• Equipment bias
• MMTS vs. CRS
• Precipitation gage with various types of wind
  shielding including none at all
• frosted mirror versus sling psychrometer

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Non-climatic influences

• Site bias change
• minor station moves
• 100 feet elevation, 5 miles allowed
• minor equipment moves on-site
• Site exposure
• Tree growth
• Buildings, roads, other infrastructure added

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Non-climatic influences

• Site bias change
• minor station moves H1,SL
• 100 feet elevation, 5 miles allowed
• minor equipment moves on-site
• Site exposure
• Tree growth
• Buildings, roads, other infrastructure added

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Non-climatic influences

• Site bias change
• minor station moves H1,SL
• 100 feet elevation, 5 miles allowed
• minor equipment moves on-site
• Site exposure
• Tree growth
• Buildings, roads, other infrastructure added

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Non-climatic influences

• Site bias change
• minor station moves H1,SL
• 100 feet elevation, 5 miles allowed
• minor equipment moves on-site
• Site exposure
• Tree growth
• Buildings, roads, other infrastructure added

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Non-climatic influences

• Measurement contamination
• Evaporation from rain gage
• Ablation of snow fall before measurement
• Radiation exposure for thermometer

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Non-climatic influences

• Observational errors
• Misreading of gage
• Min-max thermometer bar
• Too frequent measure of snow fall

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Non-climatic influences

• Transcription error (data entry)
• Transpose digits (e.g. 67 ? 76)
• Sloppy writing (e.g. 0?6, 1?7, 4?9)
• Written or read from wrong column (e.g. 0.5 snow
  entered as 0.5 liquid precipitation)

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Non-climatic influences

• Time-of-observation bias

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Non-climatic influences

• Global climate change
• Infrared absorbing gas concentration changes
• Other atmospheric changes
• Obscuring gas s.a. aerosols

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Non-climatic influences

• Local climate change
• Site bias
• Equipment bias
• Measurement contamination
• Observational errors
• Transcription error (data entry)
• Time-of-observation bias
• Global climate change

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Hwy 1 thermochrons

• PH01 lake edge
• PH02 birch by snow board
• PH03 top/driveway post
• H1 474 post on west side at Hwy 61
• H1 473 west side near drive to motel
• H1 471 south side, "61 line"
• H1 461A 3rd post west at SHT parking lot
• H1 461B 1st post west at SHT parking lot
• H1 461C post east on Whitetail Ridge Rd. to the
  south
• H1 457 post on west side at 'high falls house',
  blue 5939
• H1 451 post on west side, blue 6027
• H1 445 post on east side at Eckbeck campground at
  Baptism River
• H1 439 post on east side at Lovdahl's, blue 6242
• H1 431 post on hill at Lax Lake Road
• H1 420 post on east side at county garage
• H1 400 post east of road
• H1 372 post on hill to east of road, blue 7272
• H1 356 post about 100 ft east of road

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HIDEN/MnGage Climate Observationsand data
maintenance
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Average spacing of NWS stations is 30 miles by
design.
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Design spacing for SWCD gages is every other
township (12 miles) or better.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
2004 observers (dots) Areas needing a gage (red)
(57km2/gage)
A aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaas
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
2004 observers (dots) Areas needing a gage (red)
(57km2/gage)
A aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaas
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climate.umn.edu/update
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daily data on monthly forms
climate.umn.edu/update
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Snow Rules!A North Shore Snow Study

• State Climatology Office
• DNR Waters
• October 2004

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Observations

• snow fall
• board, ruler
• snow depth
• by course, set poles, other?
• testing
• snow water content
• use of rain gages
• use of rain gages or other cylinders as cookie
  cutters

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snowboard
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snow pole
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Let it snow!
Varley