Friday, 6 August 2010

BARRINGTON TOPS SNOW CHASE

From: Barrington Tops, Written by: Grant Burgess

http://www.raymondterrace.hunterweather.com/

Accompanied by Tim & Clare

A quick look at the weather models Thursday night had 850hPa temperatures toward the BTs staying below 0°C till midday. I awoke to a clear sky Friday morning so my hopes at seeing snow falling today were dramatically reduced.

Arrived at the dingo gate at 1130 with no ice or snow to be seen thus far, air temperature here was 5°C on the car thermometer. Spotted our first patches of snow ~1350m ASL. Our climb to Polblue saw snow thicken up rather quickly with it still evident on the road in patches. There was also a plough at Polblue when we got there which had obviously been clearing the roads - first time I had ever seen this. Air temperature at Polblue was 2.4°C at 1230 with fluctuations between 2.4 & 3.6°C the whole time we were up there under a partly cloudy sky. Snow here was a hard-packed 10-15cm cover, we spoke to a senior National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) officer who said that snow was up to 30cm deep in patches earlier in the week - before the heavy rains began.

From Polblue we headed east toward Devils Hole Lookout where snow quickly thinned out over the eastern side of the range. No snow was apparent at the lookout or on any of the other surrounding higher mountain peaks. Temperature on the car thermometer read 6°C. Further east of here we come across frost patches still on & beside the road in sheltered spots.

An informative & fun trip to say the least, even allowing for the poor road conditions - possibly the worst i've ever seen in the area.