This article presents an overview of results from the 1980–1992 survey of snow loads and densities on roofs in deep snow areas of British Columbia with particular emphasis on results from an extensive survey at the ski village on Mt. Washington, Vancouver Island, where the 30-year return ground snow load is 21 kPa. The article makes recommendations for the design of buildings in deep snow areas...

This paper presents a study to statistically characterize the joint earthquake-snow hazard and subsequently develop maximum inter-story drift fragility curves for a series of archetype woodframe structures. Of particular focus are structures built in heavy-snow regions where seismic design may govern (and hence the roof snow load contributes additional seismic mass). While load standards such a...

Precise measurements of snow structural parameters and stratigraphy are essential to understand and model snow physical processes, in particular with respect to avalanche formation. However, most snow measurements are limited in spatial resolution and by extensive measurement times, and therefore lack practicability for avalanche professionals. The snow micro-penetrometer (SMP), a portable, hig...

Carved turns with alpine skis are investigated. During the movement of a ski, snow is loaded and unloaded. Compacted snow is not elastic, i.e. deformations remain. Such effects are modeled by a hypoplastic constitutive equation. During a turn the shovel digs into the snow and the tail maintains nearly the same penetration depth as the part under maximum load. This results in a higher resistance...

Although many studies have investigated the effects of forest cover on streamflow and runoff, and several have examined the effects of canopy density on snowpack accumulation, the impacts of forest canopy density on spatial patterns of snowmelt input to catchments remain relatively underquantified. We performed an intensive snow depth and density survey during maximum accumulation in a mid-lati...