scholarly journals Hydrology and water quality of an urban stream reach in the Great Basin - Little Cottonwood Creek near Salt Lake City, Utah, water years 1999-2000

2003 ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 138 (7) ◽  
pp. 2528-2545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory L. West ◽  
W. James Steenburgh

Abstract High-resolution analyses and MesoWest surface observations are used to examine the life cycle and mesoscale frontal structure of the “Tax Day Storm,” an intermountain cyclone that produced the second lowest sea level pressure observed in Utah during the instrumented period and the strongest cold frontal passage at the Salt Lake City International Airport in the past 25 years. A key mesoscale surface feature contributing to the cyclone’s evolution is a confluence zone that extends downstream from the Sierra Nevada across the Great Basin. Strong contraction (i.e., deformation and convergence) within this Great Basin confluence zone (GBCZ) forms an airstream boundary that is initially nonfrontal but becomes the locus for surface frontogenesis as it collects and concentrates baroclinicity from the northern Great Basin, including that accompanying an approaching baroclinic trough. Evaporative and sublimational cooling from postfrontal precipitation, as well as cross-front contrasts in surface sensible heating, also play an important role, accounting for up to 40% of cross-front baroclinicity. As an upper-level cyclonic potential vorticity anomaly and quasigeostrophic forcing for ascent move over the Great Basin, cyclone development occurs along the GBCZ and developing cold front rather than within the Sierra Nevada lee trough, as might be inferred from classic models of lee cyclogenesis. Front–mountain interactions ultimately produce a very complex frontal evolution over the basin-and-range topography of northern Utah. The analysis further establishes the role of the GBCZ in intermountain frontogenesis and cyclone evolution. Recognition of this role is essential for improving the analysis and prediction of sensible weather changes produced by cold fronts and cyclones over the Intermountain West.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sedi Bogart ◽  
◽  
Alesha Rivera ◽  
Mallory Scofield ◽  
Jasmine Garcia ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Charles G. (Jack) Oviatt ◽  
Genevieve Atwood ◽  
Benjamin J.C. Laabs ◽  
Paul W. Jewell ◽  
Harry M. Jol

ABSTRACT On this field trip we visit three sites in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah, USA, where we examine the geomorphology of the Bonneville shoreline, the history of glaciation in the Wasatch Range, and shorezone geomorphology of Great Salt Lake. Stop 1 is at Steep Mountain bench, adjacent to Point of the Mountain in the Traverse Mountains, where the Bonneville shoreline is well developed and we can examine geomorphic evidence for the behavior of Lake Bonneville at its highest levels. At Stop 2 at the mouths of Little Cottonwood and Bells Canyons in the Wasatch Range, we examine geochronologic and geomorphic evidence for the interaction of mountain glaciers with Lake Bonneville. At the Great Salt Lake at Stop 3, we can examine modern processes and evidence of the Holocene history of the lake, and appreciate how Lake Bonneville and Great Salt Lake are two end members of a long-lived lacustrine system in one of the tectonically generated basins of the Great Basin.


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