Abstract
The oxygen isotopic composition of freshly fallen snow has been measured simultaneously with ice-crystal photography at a high altitude station in the central Sierra Nevada. These and other meso- and microscale cloud measurements have been used to study the short-term δ 18O variations of ice-phase precipitation from winter storms. In this study, snow samples collected from six storm events in 1985 were used. The results show that: (1) the degree of riming and the δ 18O value of the ice particles correlate positively for six of the six storms samples, except at times of strong convective activity; (2) temperatures of ice phase initiation do not agree with the isotopically derived “temperatures” of the precipitation reaching the ground, as a result of riming; hence, the amount and location of supercooled liquid water in the clouds are considered to be strong determining factors influencing the δ 18O values; and (3) no obvious correlations were observed between precipitation rate and δ 18O or between the maximum precipitation intensity and the range of the δ 18O values of the snowfall.
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