2022 Volume 32 Issue 3 Pages 108
There are wide alpine desert and rocky desert of mountainous area except wide sandy desert in the world. As an elevation is high and air temperature is low in high mountain, clouds appear and heavy rain is found occasionally, but it flows out and dry up quickly. Then vegetation is rare based on dry and cold weather.
As there is almost no meteorological data in such a mountainous area, it is necessary to estimate meteorological data from topography, elevation and the other information. But estimation procedure is a little, it is necessary to investigate. In this paper, an estimation method of mountainous weather or climate was introduced as an example of abnormal cold and dry condition in the Northern Japan Alps.
The author climbed in the Northern Japan Alps from August 17 to 20 in 2018 and evaluated a local weather or climate at a high mountain by a chance observation of characteristic weather in midsummer.
It showed particularly a new record or an equal record of minimum air temperature at 125 points of AMeDAS from Chugoku-Shikoku to Hokkaido, as an abnormal weather based on the cold continental air mass of anticyclone.
The monthly minimum air temperature was recorded in 8 levels from 11 km to lower layer on Aug. 17 and 3 levels of the lowest layer under 1000 m level on Aug. 18 at Wajima aerological observatory, because of the strong cold anticyclone from the northern continent. Inversion layer was observed at the level of about 2000 m on Aug. 17-18 at Wajima and temperature gaps were found at the level of 1350-2330 m in the Alps.
A dry, cold and rather strong wind of 10.7 m/s from northern direction affected on 1500-3000 m layer in the daytime, and minimum air temperature at Tarodaira was 4.1°C by the estimation, and at the cottage was 4.0°C by the observation on Aug. 17. On Aug. 18, minimum air temperature was –2.8°C with a dry, cold and week wind at Tarodaira ridge by the estimation at 400-1350 m, and visible estimation was –3 to –4°C at the height of 1900-2300 m in Yakushisawa basin of Kurobe headstream area where frosted.
The author experienced those phenomena of dry-cold air mass and frost mentioned above by mountaineering. An analysis of sensible local climate was introduced the first step of an estimation of mountainous desert climate. It will be able to apply for one of alpine weather estimation.
