Freezing rain is an especially hazardous type of adverse weather and is frequently observed in Churchill, Manitoba. The goals of this study were to assess the climatology of freezing rain in Churchill, assess the synoptic climatology of the Hudson Bay region using a multi-level synoptic classification scheme, assess the relationships between the synoptic climate and freezing rain events, and assess the trends in synoptic types and to discuss the implications of climate change in relation to the expected changes in freezing rain. For the years 1953 thru 2009, freezing rain was observed during 796 hours, an average of approximately 15 hours per year. A 34-type multi-level synoptic classification consisting of five NCEP/NCAR reanalysis datasets was constructed. Type-20 was associated with a majority of the freezing rain cases. More research is needed to understand how climate change may impact the timing, frequency and intensity of freezing rain in Churchill.

Freezing rain is an especially hazardous type of adverse weather and is frequently observed in Churchill, Manitoba. The goals of this study were to assess the climatology of freezing rain in Churchill, assess the synoptic climatology of the Hudson Bay region using a multi-level synoptic classification scheme, assess the relationships between the synoptic climate and freezing rain events, and assess the trends in synoptic types and to discuss the implications of climate change in relation to the expected changes in freezing rain. For the years 1953 thru 2009, freezing rain was observed during 796 hours, an average of approximately 15 hours per year. A 34-type multi-level synoptic classification consisting of five NCEP/NCAR reanalysis datasets was constructed. Type-20 was associated with a majority of the freezing rain cases. More research is needed to understand how climate change may impact the timing, frequency and intensity of freezing rain in Churchill.

No description available.

Intraregional variability in tropospheric environments during freezing rain events is investigated for the South Central United States. National Weather Service (NWS) Automated Surface Observing Stations (ASOS) are used to detect the occurrence of freezing rain, and rawinsonde observations (RAOB) employed to analyze lower tropospheric vertical profiles of temperature, dew point temperature, wind, and layer thicknesses during these periods. The study area consists of seven 100 mile radius RAOB proximity sub-regions centered around Peachtree City Georgia, Nashville Tennessee, Birmingham Alabama, Jackson Mississippi, Shreveport Louisiana, Little Rock Arkansas, and Springfield Missouri. A series of difference of means tests are performed to determine if statistically significant differences exist in mean values of selected tropospheric variables during periods of freezing rain between adjacent RAOB sites to determine the character of intraregional variability within the South Central United States. Results of these tests suggest 5 sub-regions exist in which freezing rain events can be forecast based upon thresholds and ranges of lower tropospheric environmental variables. As a final step, flow charts are developed for each of the 5 subregions to aid meteorologists in forecasting freezing rain within the Southeast United States. / Department of Geography

To evaluate the compression wood response in eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) following a severe ice storm in 1994, 47 trees were felled in 2007 and cross-sectional samples were collected at 0.5 (±0.2) m stem height. The disks were sanded and digitally scanned, and the cross-sectional area (mm2) of compression wood within each tree-ring was quantified using image analysis software. Topographic data (slope, aspect, and elevation) were also recorded for each P. strobus tree, along with a modified competition index. Wood anatomical features were also quantified in the three years before and after the storm along a tree diameter gradient. Although tree age was relatively constant in this stand, tree size was influenced by topographic position; larger trees grew in the valley while smaller trees were found growing in thin soils at the mid-slope position. When the cohort was about 25 years old, ice deposition caused a heterogeneous compression wood response which was highly related to tree size. In the thirteen years following the ice storm, the 6 – 9 cm (2007) diameter class formed significantly more compression wood area than any other, followed by the 10 – 13 cm (2007) diameter class. The tree diameter range that formed the most post-storm compression wood was 4 – 8 cm at the time of the storm, suggesting that this diameter range was most affected by 8.5 cm of ice loading in P. strobus. Trees > 18 cm in 1994 did not form any compression wood after the storm, but many experienced a growth release to fill canopy gaps. Topographic variables did not influence compression wood formation directly, but only one plot was sampled so these results are tenuous. However, topography did influence tree size which was the most important predictor in compression wood. There was no relationship between compression wood area and competition index. Due to compression wood formation after the ice storm, cell wall thickness and cell circularity were significantly higher in the 1994 tree-ring than in other rings examined (1991 – 1993, 1995, and 1996). Tracheid and lumen diameters were significantly smaller in compression wood cells (30.5 and 19.5 μm, respectively) than in normal wood (36.8 and 28.4 μm, respectively); opposite wood cells were intermediate in size (32.4 and 24.4 μm, respectively). Due to small tracheid size, compression wood contained significantly more cells mm⁻¹ (33) than normal wood (27), but no significant differences in cell wall area. Therefore, cumulative cell wall area occupied 47% of the cross-section in compression wood tissue on average, compared to 31% in normal wood. Dispersing tree weight across a greater surface area may help compression wood to prop up a bent tree, but reduced lumen area may also impact hydraulic conductivity in the stem. / Master of Science

Mémoire en recherche-création. / À partir d’archives diffusées sur YouTube, ce mémoire s’intéresse à la catastrophe naturelle du Verglas de 1998. Les vidéos sont l’occasion d’une réflexion sur l’esthétique des images d’information journalistique de catastrophes naturelles, sur le support VHS qui a permis leur premier enregistrement (la création d’une mémoire), et sur la télévision, médium qui les a d’abord diffusées. Conjointement à l’analyse de ces images est exposée la démarche de leur réemploi qui a mené à la réalisation d’un essai filmique. Le réemploi s’est notamment effectué en altérant des archives avec des magnétoscopes, fruits de la technologie de l’époque, qui avaient permis d’enregistrer les images télévisées. Avec ce geste de réemploi sont apparues des perspectives esthétiques qui permettent de voir la catastrophe autrement. D’autre part, ce projet a conduit l’auteur, muni d’une caméra VHS, à aller sur les lieux de l’événement, filmer les pylônes reconstruits, mais aussi au-delà, à la Baie James. Ce travail de recherche-création procède d’une méthode non systématique mais qui suit des chemins ouverts par les archives, par les technologies rencontrées ou par les images créées. Il envisage la question fondamentale que posent les catastrophes naturelles : celle du rapport qu’entretient l’homme avec la nature. / From archives released on YouTube, this thesis aims to explore the natural disaster of Ice Storm of 1998. The videos offer an opportunity to reflect on the aesthetic images of journalistic information on natural disasters, but also on the VHS medium that allowed their first recording (the creation of a memory), as well as on television, the medium that first distributed them. Alongside the analysis of these images, this thesis presents the process for reusing them, which led to the production of a film essay. Archives were altered thanks to video recorders, the technological advancement of the time, which allowed the recording of televised images. With reuse, came aesthetic perspectives that allow us to see the disaster differently. On the other hand, this project led the author, equipped with a VHS camera, to go to the scene of the event, to film the reconstructed pylons, but also to go beyond, to James Bay. This research-creation work was developed through a non-systematic method, rather following the paths opened up by the archives, technologies encountered or images created. It considers the fundamental question posed by natural disasters : that of the relationship between man and nature.