Pomeroy Quote in Edmonton Journal 2013 Quiz

The Edmonton Journal has included a quote by CH Director Prof. John Pomeroy in its 2013 Pop Quiz of Political Quips. The quote was:

We’ve got different atmospheric dynamics and we’re getting events like this that were improbable or even literally impossible before. And we should expect more of them.

Their corresponding ‘answer’ was as follows:

Ominously, Prof. John Pomeroy at the University of Saskatchewan warns us about the possibility of more climate-change-related extreme weather like the torrential rainfall that triggered the summer flooding in southern Alberta.

The piece is available online here.

Alberta 2013 Flood Forecast Review

The Calgary Herald has published an article reviewing the effectiveness and timeliness of flood forecasts issued in June 2013 for the Alberta mountains and foothills.

The piece quotes Centre for Hydrology e-mails sent before the flood, which were supplied following an ‘Access to Information’ request by the authors to the Province. Director John Pomeroy provided commentary to the article regarding the challenges in forecasting the flood.

The piece is currently available from the newspaper here, and in PDF form here.

Pomeroy Interviewed by CBC TV News

CH Director Prof. John Pomeroy was recently (10th December 2013) interviewed by CBC TV News on the topic of the past summer’s floods in Alberta. The focus was a consultant’s report from April 2012, which highlighted many of the potential vulnerabilities in Calgary which were subsequently exploited by the flooding.

The video segment is available online here.

Nicholas Kinar Defends PhD Thesis

CH PhD student Nicholas Kinar successfully defended his thesis, tiled Acoustic Measurement of Snow, on 18 December 2013.

His research developed a novel acoustic method for the accurate measurement of snow water equivalent, density, wetness and temperature in seasonal snowpacks. This is expected eventually to supplant the snow tube and perhaps the snowpit as a primary means of measuring snow properties for hydrological and other snow applications – perhaps one of the most significant advances in snow measurement technology in our generation.

His committee was composed of external examiner Dr HP Marshall of Boise State University, chair, Dr Xulin Guo (U of S), members Dr Phil Marsh (Wilfred Laurier University), Dr Bing Si (U of S), Dr Doug Degenstein (U of S) and Dr John Pomeroy (U of S)

Congratulations, Nicholas!

Seminar 18th December

Due to unfortunate circumstances, HP Marshall will be unavailable to present his talk scheduled for 18th December at 1pm (144 Kirk Hall).

Instead, we are happy to announce that Nicholas Kinar will present a talk titled Acoustic Measurement of Snow.

Hans-Peter Marshall Seminar – 18th December

Professor Hans-Peter Marshall of Boise State University will present a Centre for Hydrology seminar titled

Combining ground-based microwave radar, airborne LiDAR, and energy balance modelling to estimate spatial variability of snow properties.

The seminar will take place on Wednesday 18th Deceber at 1pm in 144 Kirk Hall.