14" Snow on 18 Green
Monday, Jan. 17
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.
