Field Work - Arctic Style

Though we have not had the cold temperatures that the last team had (-56degrees), today felt more like the true arctic experience! We went out to dig snow pits from 8:30 - 12:00. The actual temperature was 6 degrees F at first and dropped to 2 degrees F. With 25 mph winds, the wind chill was -15 degrees F falling to -20. That is the coldest it has been for us in the field so far...which is fine with me! You'd think we'd be sipping hot cocoa or something, but I drank a full liter of ice cold water while I was out today. I didn't want a repeat of Tuesday's dehydration!
Each day when we go out to a site, we are divided into 3 groups that dig two pits each in three areas: tundra, forest-tundra, and forest. The tundra area is the open space. It's exposure to the winds keeps the snow from piling up. Tundra snow pits are usually very shallow at around 20 cm or less.

Forest-tundra is the transition area between the forest and tundra. (I'm sure you guessed as much.) That area can have some drifts that get deep, but it can vary widely. Pits in that area have been 2-4 feet on average.

Forest snow pits can get very deep. The snow that blows across the tundra gets trapped by the trees and huge drifts form. It is very pretty to see the rise and fall of the snow drifts among the trees. Today's snow pits in the forest were some of our deepest. I was on the tundra team, but when we finished both of our pits we went to help the forest group finish their work. We measure temperature in the snow every 5 cm. Figure up how many temperatures were taken in this pit that measured 190 cm.

Student Challenge:

Think about the areas around Aberdeen (or Prairie). Can you identify three areas with different types of vegetation? Post a comment to describe the locations and their vegetation.