Autumn rains gather pace

The autumn rainy season has got into full swing over the past month as you can see in the hydrograph above. November 20th shows a peak stage of around 90 cm after about 120 mm of rain fell over 2 days with intensities up to 11 mm/h. Stage is likely to remain at around 60 cm or higher until the winter snows arrive next month.

Weather conditions during today's survey were cloudy and relatively warm at 14 degrees C in the afternoon. After measuring the river discharge, we prepared for the winter season by cleaning the snow lysimeters and charging the winter precipitation gauges with antifreeze.

Stage = 62.5 cm, Ta = 9.9 C, Tw = 10.3 C

First blast of winter

Stage = 59cm, Ta = 5C, Tw = 10C

December-like conditions today as heavy rain and sleet sweep in with strong winds. The air temperature in Murakami on the coast is just 3 degrees C, so the mountains will have been getting their first big accumulation of snow. Air temperatures were around 5 degrees at the gauging point, and with water temperatures around 10 degrees it made for very cold conditions to take a discharge measurement.