Distribution of snow cover in the Teshio and Nakagawa Experimental Forest, Hokkaido University
1994
Fujiwara, K. (Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo (Japan). Faculty of Agriculture) | Sasa, K. | Satoh, F.
Snow cover is a useful environmental factor in Hokkaido. Snow surveying was carried out in northern part of Hokkaido for the last three winters. The daily snow fall and depth of snow cover were observed at Toikanbetsu station of the Teshio Experimental Forest, Hokkaido University. The depth, the water equivalent and the mean density of snow cover at the points selected from Teshio to Kitamiesashi (Fig 1), were observed by a snow sampler from the end of February to the beginning of March. It is concluded that at this time of the year the depth of snow cover was a maximum level and the mean air temperature was below the melting point of ice. The snow cover of three winters during the observation was less than the normals, but the snow cover distribution of the observed area were clarified depending on topographic features and roughness of ground surface. There was a small quantity of snow cover at the seasides of the Japan Sea and the Okhotsk Sea. The amounts of snowcover gradually increased with going further from the seasides. The largest value of annual maximum snow depth in observed lowland area was 170+-35cm around Otoineppu in the glen of the Teshio Mountains and the Kitami Mountains. The effects of elevation of the snow cover depth in the mountainous area was relatively small compared with that of the slope and the aspect of the terrain, or that of the vegetative covers. Strong wind moved loose snow and resulted in the erosion of the snow cover and the formation of snow deposition at extensive open areas. At the crest of the Nakanomine, the rate of snow transportation was about 100cm within a day, when the maximum wind speed at the Toikanbetsu station was over 12m/s
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