thinker
The Force is Strong With This One
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/17/1218911460353.html
Record chills hit August
IT HAS been the coldest start to August in 13 years, bringing heavy snowfalls in the ski fields and record low temperatures elsewhere.
After an unseasonably warm start to winter, temperatures in July and August have been colder than average, setting records across NSW.
"Between August 7 and 12, places like Glen Innes have broken temperature records that had stood for more than 40 years," a spokeswoman from the Bureau of Meteorology said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=481&objectid=10527882
Turoa claims largest snow base ever
Mt Ruapehu is claiming the biggest snow base ever recorded for a New Zealand skifield with over 4.5m of snow on the ground.
Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, operator of Mt Ruapehu ski area, was celebrating what it called a major milestone today.
The snow measuring stake at Turoa previously only stood at 380cm so had to be extended to measure today's 455cm snow base.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelsonmail/4661657a6007.html
Too much of a good thing for Rainbow
Rainbow Ski Area's problems are snowballing, with a record snow dump forcing the field to stay closed during its peak period, and a mammoth and expensive task ahead to reopen it.
Avalanche bombing has been carried out at the skifield, but the facilities and access road are still buried in deep snow.
Three workers have been snowed in up at the skifield, but other staff have still not been able to get up the road.
Spokesman Hamish Neill said the not-for-profit society that ran the skifield was not equipped to move such significant amounts of snow, and had been forced to employ contractors to help.
"Never in the history of the ski area has such a depth of snow been experienced. Although we measure a 3m average base depth - itself a record - there are drifts of snow that add another metre or more to this."
Record chills hit August
IT HAS been the coldest start to August in 13 years, bringing heavy snowfalls in the ski fields and record low temperatures elsewhere.
After an unseasonably warm start to winter, temperatures in July and August have been colder than average, setting records across NSW.
"Between August 7 and 12, places like Glen Innes have broken temperature records that had stood for more than 40 years," a spokeswoman from the Bureau of Meteorology said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=481&objectid=10527882
Turoa claims largest snow base ever
Mt Ruapehu is claiming the biggest snow base ever recorded for a New Zealand skifield with over 4.5m of snow on the ground.
Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, operator of Mt Ruapehu ski area, was celebrating what it called a major milestone today.
The snow measuring stake at Turoa previously only stood at 380cm so had to be extended to measure today's 455cm snow base.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelsonmail/4661657a6007.html
Too much of a good thing for Rainbow
Rainbow Ski Area's problems are snowballing, with a record snow dump forcing the field to stay closed during its peak period, and a mammoth and expensive task ahead to reopen it.
Avalanche bombing has been carried out at the skifield, but the facilities and access road are still buried in deep snow.
Three workers have been snowed in up at the skifield, but other staff have still not been able to get up the road.
Spokesman Hamish Neill said the not-for-profit society that ran the skifield was not equipped to move such significant amounts of snow, and had been forced to employ contractors to help.
"Never in the history of the ski area has such a depth of snow been experienced. Although we measure a 3m average base depth - itself a record - there are drifts of snow that add another metre or more to this."
