No Good Pictures but No Bad News Either

It took a few days to visit all the greens but I finally managed to get to each green and dig down to all surfaces. The level of snow varies from 19 inches down to 11 inches with a majority of the greens on the back having the most snow. All surfaces are thawed and only one, 12 green, has a very small ice layer on the back tier. When I'm checking for ice I generally have a good idea where to go on each green based on past ice events, shading from trees, and my "spidey sense". It would be pretty bold to say everything is rosy but based on observations from the chronic problem spots it seems that there was no real negative impact (i.e. ice formation) on the green surfaces from the past weeks warm weather. At present, we have a 2 to 3 inch hard crust over a loose corn snow done to a buttery soft green surface. What now? For selfish reasons I would like another series large of dumps until mid-March and then it can stop. However, if no more real snow comes I'm optimistic that we have enough protection until spring.

Could Be Worse

14" Snow on 18 Green
Monday, Jan. 17

We have 3 days of rain and above normal temperatures under our belt and the snow is changing. Today I checked some select greens with chronic ice problems and things appear O.K. The amount of snow has dropped from 20" on Friday to 14" today. The consistency of the snow is no longer dry but has more of a "Mr. Misty" feel (a dated reference to a DQ treat) versus a "Slurpee" feel. What I mean to say is there is no real flowing water and the melted snow seems to have re-frozen into a small, loose ice granules. There is no longer defined layers within the snow profile (as mentioned in the last post) but instead the snow is more uniform top to bottom. Most likely the insulating and water holding/trapping characteristics are all but tapped out. A continuation of this and we may be facing a scenario similar to 2008. That year we had a similar situation (rain, days of above zero temperatures, and decreased snow integrity) quickly followed by a large drop in temperature and the almost immediate formation of surface ice that resulted in severe damage to 18 green. However, some things in our favour this year are the large amount of snow at the start of the warm spell and the fact that most surfaces are unfrozen. Also, with respect to 18 green, we installed extra drainage (see http://kimberleygolfclub.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html ). We will continue to check the greens and keep and eye on developments until it looks like things have stabilized.

Snow Pack

20 inches (50 cm) of cover on
January 14

Middle of January and we're getting rain. Disappointing but not unusual. The good news is the existing snow cover is fairly resilient. Starting on Wednesday (Jan. 12) and continuing through to Thursday (Jan.13) 9 inches of snow was added to an already existing 16 inches of snow cover over unfrozen ground. At this point, the only thing the warm weather and rain has done is consolidate the most recent snow fall from 9 inches down to 4 or 5 inches.

One of the things in our favour right now is the layers that are within the 20 inches of snow. Five inches down from the top is a small, thin crusty layer that could help to slow any water percolating down onto the green surface. Five inches below this thin layer is another thicker band of "snow/ice" that resulted from exposure to an earlier warm spell back in December. This thicker layer could also slow or stop any water from reaching the green.

Layers with the snow cover
on 9 Green

The one more good thing (depending......?)as I mentioned in a previous post is the observation that most of the green surfaces are not frozen. If water did reach the surface it could easily continue into the root zone without the development of ice.

I've seen late season ice develop over unfrozen ground before. Usually, the ground temperature melts the ice from the bottom up and a little air layer develops between the ice and the green surface. As long as the ice is not so dense as to completely seal off gas exchange, is not on the surface for more than 30 - 45 days, and does not grow thicker damage can be minimal (the usual caveats apply to such a general statement: plant health and nutrition, plant spp., blah, blah, blah, etc., etc.)

I'll keep a watch over the next week or until the weather changes to monitor any changes to the greens surface and post any observations.