Suretta Sud Glacier - Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo

snow-meteo report
A summary of the events
The 2007-2008 Hydrological Year in the Italian Central Alps can be summarized as follows:
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Another negative autumn season for snow accumulations;
A moist and snowy spring;
A strong ablation in June, July and August;
A cold and snowy September, marking the anticipated end of the ablation season.
Accumulation season (1st October, 2007 – 30th June, 2008)
The 2007-2008 accumulation season resulted,
as it has often happened in the past few years,
very unfavourable for the Lombardy glaciers.
The abundant spring precipitations were
not sufficient to grant a good supply to our
glaciers: the many, large avalanches that
followed April and May snowfalls have restocked
only the few apparatuses fed by avalanches,
while the same snow, characterized
by a scanty resistance for lack of a proper
compaction, did not help the other glaciers.
Snow accumulations were very moderate in
October, December and February; on the oth-
Weather Station
Precipitations in mm
October, 2007 - June, 2008
(Deviations from the mean
value)
- 8 -
er side November snowfalls were scourged
by strong northern currents that redistributed
and eroded the snow on the ground.
Though January was double-faced, the month
can be judged positive for our glaciers. At
first, moist Atlantic perturbations led to several
episodes of abundant accumulations
while in the second half of the month, good
weather conditions and temperatures exceeding
the average for the period had the positive
effect of slowing down the constructive
metamorphism process of the snow cover.
March was also windy; as a conse-
Tab. 1: Precipitation and temperature values during the 2007/2008 accumulation season. In order
to allow a homogeneous comparison among the different stations, the mean value has been
calculated for the period 1988/89 – 2005/06. “Integral” means that the average temperature has
been calculated by adding each recorded value (data acquisition interval: 5’) and dividing the total
by the number of readings. The other temperatures have been calculated with the “arithmetic”
method: i.e. (average of daily maximum temperatures + average of daily minimum temperatures) / 2.
Temperatures in °C
October, 2007 - June, 2008
(Deviations from the mean
value)
Passo Venerocolo - 3230 m/s.l.m. - - 6,7° (integrale - 7,0°) *
Bivacco Corti - 2509 m/s.l.m. - - 0,4° (integrale - 1,7°)
Bivacco Resnati - 1950 m/s.l.m. - + 1,9° (integrale + 1,5°)
Sils/Maria - 1798 m/s.l.m. 637,9 (- 30,7 mm ; - 4,6 %) + 0,1° (+ 0,3°)
S.Antonio di Valfurva - 1360 m/s.l.m. 528,2 (+ 42 mm ; + 8,0 %) + 3,5° (+ 0,1°)
Sondrio - 290 m/s.l.m. 589,9 (- 100,1 mm ; - 14,5 %) + 9,1° (- 0,4°)
Andalo Valtellino - 220 m/s.l.m. 752,6 (- 81,5 mm ; - 9,8 %) + 10,1°
Massimeno (TN) - 860 m/s.l.m. 834 (+ 70 mm ; + 10 %) + 6,4°
*Average value for the period October 2007- May 2008 because of an instrument failure in June, 2008