12-21-17 Paradise telemetry

So what happened to the total snow measurement is that the pole that the electronic sensor is mounted on can slip, since it is mounted in a less than ideal manner (hose clamps) on a non standard tower for us.

Long story short the slip causes the sensor readings to be too low. No government conspiracy just gravity.

For this simple fix we were able to get a park employee to go out with pair of vice grips and realign the pole.

Hopefully a regular clearing of the 24 hour board will resume soon.

Maybe we can improve the total snow sensor mount before too long as well.

Thanks, Garth
NW Avalanche Center

Thanks for the info on what really happened, Garth. Never thought that might be the culprit, and everything about the sensor arm looked ok from a distance when I visited the site 3 days ago. But it's nice to see a stable snowdepth reading once again.

Amar - I thought I would add a couple comments. The slip occurs when snow builds up on the top of the sonic sensor and causes the pole to rotate a bit, hence the distance the sensor measures to the snow surface becomes further, hence the snow by the usual arithmetic is shallower.

The readings become uneven because the sensor is no longer pointed vertically at the snow surface but at an angle.

One wouldn't see any problems when skiing by unless you knew exactly what to look for.

The original comment about artificial lowering wasn't the best, it was made before the problem was understood.

Again maybe the mount can be improved in the future to prevent the slip, it has happened before.