Phil's Adventures with Lake-Effect Snowstorms: Settling In

So I have arrived in Geneva, NY for OWLeS. The hotel I am staying in sits right on the northern shores of Seneca Lake, one of the New York Finger Lakes. My window looks directly out over the lake to the east. I call that a win! Be on the ready for epic sunrise photos finding their way into this blog. In total, there are currently six of us here from the University of Wyoming - myself, our pilot, two engineers, and two other atmospheric scientists. There are eight others from UW who will be coming out at some point in the next two months, although not all at the same time.

The last 24 hours have been a rush - getting to Geneva, picking up last-minute supplies, getting food, driving to the airport to pick up equipment from our trailer, driving 2 hours to the east side of Lake Ontario to drop off and assemble some weather instruments and a snow crystal camera at one of our ground sites - it's been busy. At least I was able to hang out will some cool folks from the University of Utah while I was there. The project officially begins this Thursday, although it appears as if the weather conditions will not be favorable for lake-effect snow development until Saturday at the earliest. So we wait, although this does not mean I will be sitting around watching TV all day. I will be quite busy for the rest of the week with a variety of things.

First, there is an OWLeS Media Day tomorrow (Wednesday) at the local airport. We'll be showcasing many of our weather instruments and sensors to people from the community. Our research aircraft and the Doppler on Wheels radars will also be there. After that, assuming my OWLeS responsibilities are on hold until Saturday, I have homework and a take-home final exam to do! (I know, right?!?) Eventually, the fun stuff will begin and I'll have stories to tell and pictures to show.

In my next post, I'm going to talk a little bit about lake-effect snow, especially since some of you may not exactly know what it is. It's pretty cool stuff, and the amount of snow some of these storms dump is incredible! Also, at some point down the road, I'll hopefully put a post together about our research aircraft (the University of Wyoming King Air). With the Science Posse, whenever I give a lab tour I usually try to turn it into a King Air tour. After all, the sky is my lab. So if you happen to visit the Science Posse for a lab tour in Laramie, you might also get a chance to see the King Air up close!

Stay tuned over the next couple of days for my next update!

-Phil

UPDATE:
Here are a few photos from today's Media Day. The turnout was quite good. There were a number of elementary school groups that visited, and also some local TV stations. Enjoy!