SOIL SURVEY

-20-to a new location (51° 24 N and 116° 33 W, altitude 3,800 ft (950 m)), and for aperiod from June 1970 to April 1971 for Leanchoil Station (located at 51 ° 4 ' N and116° 34 W, altitude 3,740 ft (935 m)) . At the present time the only station in Yoh oNational Park is located at the Boulder Creek compound .Comparisons of data (Table 2) which were recorded at the same time for station sOttertail, Hector and Lake Louise show a decreasing temperature and increasing precipitationfrom the west gate of Yoho National Park toward Continental Divide resultin gfrom an increase in altitude . Temperature and precipitation at Lake Louise was lowe rthan that at Hector station even though both stations were at similar altitudes and afew miles apart . Hector Lake is on the windward side of the mountain range wherea sLake Louise is on the leeward side and is in the path of cold air drainage from th enearby Victoria glacier . Landals and Scotter (1973) have found that in an upper sub -alpine environment the O'Hara Meadows have lower temperatures than the Schaffe rMeadows which are approximately 100 m higher . Cold air drainage becomes ponde din the O'Hara basin forming a frost pocket . In spite of higher temperatures on SchafferMeadows there is a shorter snow-free period than that on O'Hara Meadow becaus eSchaffer Meadows are in the shade of Mt . Schafferand Mt . Odaray for a large par tof the day during the spring and fall .The foregoing paragraph provides some specific examples of the climate o fYoho and also demonstrates the difficulty of extrapolating climatological informatio nwhen recording stations are not available . Vegetation and soils respond to variationsin climate, and to some extent it is possible to predict relative changes in climate b yexamination of the soils and vegetation . An understanding of the climate, where dat ais available, assists in understanding the relationships between soil and climate . Arecent report by Janz and Storr (1977) from which Figure 10 was taken, provides som einsight into local variations in climate and presents a discussion of climate in themountain Parks .