Summary for Monday January 18th

Precipitation being, of course, an integral part of naturally-delivered water resources, we spent today's lecture discussing why it rains where it rains. The three factors that we discussed were

1. latitude (mostly due to changes in temperature)
2. distance from a moisture source such as the ocean (given prevailing direction of the wind)
3. elevation (orographic effects dominated by changes in temperature)

Following this lecture, you should be able to describe why a specific spot on the globe gets lots of annual rainfall or not. You should also be able to discuss the reason(s) for seasonal variations in precipitation patterns and why this is important from a resource perspective. You should also know how to interpret information on a 100-year 24 hr precipitation map (or a 10-year 2 precipitation map, for that matter), be aware of temporal (historical) variation in precipitation, and be able to explain why the percent of precipitation received as snow is important from a resource perspective. Finally, you should have a basic understanding of cloud seeding in terms of its effectiveness, how it works, what conditions and materials are required, and any possible negative consequences. Material relevant to our lecture today can be found in chapter 4 of Applied Principles of Hydrology.

For Wednesday, please read (and come ready to discuss) the following:

Burlington Council Launches New Stormwater Management Program by Mike Ives - This is an article that appeared in the Vermont's alternative weekly (yes, Vermont only has one alternative weekly newspaper for the entire state) about a year ago about a new way that the city of Burlington is going to implement a differential sewer tax based on infiltration vs. runoff and how this affects the cities sewers.

There is also an excellent explanation brochure written by the Burlington Department of Public Works that explains the changes and the reason behind the changes. Read this as well.

Also, if you have not yet read it, read chapter 5 (Infiltration and Soil Moisture) in Applied Principles of hydrology.

PowerPoint slides shown in lecture today are now available as a .pdf on Sakai.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.

As of 1:30pm edt, Bottlemania is closed. Everyone who has not contacted me about a preference will be reading Blue Covenant.