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Entre glace et bordées : Les ceintures de neige / Snow Belts

  • February 4, 2021
  • Ned Morgan
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mots :: Dominique Caron // photo :: Alain Denis.

Samedi, 9 h tapant. Fraîchement éjectés de la remontée mécanique, tes skis touchent le sol et glissent sur un tapis de… glace. Encore. « Y’me semble que c’est tout le temps glacé cette mausus de montagne là ! », te dis-tu. Encore.

Tu te rappelles ce terme, entendu d’un ami ou lu dans un journal : snow belt ou ceinture de neige en bon français. « Entre Val-David et Val-Morin, dans la ceinture de neige », titrait le journaliste Alain Demers. Pourrait-il expliquer pourquoi certaines stations de ski soient vouées à se servir constamment de canons à neige, alors que d’autres sont bénies des dieux, couronnées d’impressionnantes bordées ? Ou s’agit-il d’une expression purement séductrice à laquelle ces dernières ont recours ?

Une ceinture de neige est d’abord et avant tout due à un phénomène météorologique. Lorsque l’air froid survole une grande surface d’eau non gelée ou dont la glace est brisée, il se gorge d’humidité avec l’évaporation de l’eau. Puisque la température du plan d’eau est plus élevée que celle de l’air, cela crée une instabilité déclenchée une fois la côte atteinte. Résultat : une importante averse de neige dans un secteur précis. C’est ce qu’on appelle « l’effet de lac », précise Simon Legault, météorologue chez Environnement Canada. En Amérique du Nord, c’est ce qui explique qu’on observe plusieurs ceintures de neige près des Grands Lacs.

Au Québec, le phénomène ne semble pas être répertorié aussi clairement. Si le lac Saint-Jean et certaines portions du fleuve Saint-Laurent ont une dimension assez importante pour recréer un « effet de lac » dans les monts Valin ou les Chic-Chocs – où l’on enregistre chaque année des quantités de neige supérieures à d’autres régions du Québec – ces cours d’eau sont trop éloignés pour reproduire le phénomène tel qu’on le retrouve près des Grands Lacs.

Legault souligne que des facteurs topographiques – relatif au relief général d’un terrain – sont favorables aux accumulations de neige dans ces secteurs. « Dans la réserve faunique des Laurentides [près des monts Valin], la précipitation est favorisée puisque l’air doit s’élever pour avancer parmi les montagnes. Lors du soulèvement de l’air, il y a une combinaison d’effets qui font en sorte que les chutes de neige sont plus favorables par rapport à d’autres endroits. Ce sont essentiellement des phénomènes régionaux. »

Quelles frontières / What Limit? Winter-Spring ’21 Vie en Montagne Out Now

C’est indéniable, certaines stations du Québec reçoivent plus de neige que d’autres. C’est le cas des stations de la Gaspésie, du Bas-Saint-Laurent, du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean et de Charlevoix, selon les chiffres de l’Association des stations de ski du Québec (ASSQ). Certaines d’entre elles carburent même entièrement à la neige naturelle, confirme Camille Chapdeleine, coordonnatrice aux communications à l’ASSQ.

Dans tous les cas, le terme ceinture de neige vise plutôt à attirer l’attention des amateurs de plein air qu’à offrir une description fidèle d’un phénomène météorologique, qui finalement, repose lui-même sur plusieurs phénomènes complexes. On est tout de même prêts à lui donner le bénéfice du doute – surtout s’il peut nous mettre sur la piste de belles bordées plutôt que sur des flancs glacés.

*      *      *

Saturday, 9 a.m. sharp. You push off the chairlift, your skis touch the ground and glide across a blanket of … ice. Not again. You say to yourself, “this darned mountain is always icy!”

You then remember a term you heard from a friend or maybe you read about in the newspaper: Snow belt. “Between Val-David and Val-Morin sits the snow belt,” claimed an article by journalist Alain Demers. Could that explain why some ski resorts are forced to use snow cannons every year without fail, whereas others are blessed by the snow gods with heaps of fluffy snow? Or is it simply an expression that helps resorts reel in customers?

A snow belt is in fact a meteorological phenomenon. In a nutshell, it all starts when coastal winds push cold air over unfrozen or half-frozen bodies of water.

Entre-glace-et-bordees-Les-ceintures-de-neige-Snow-Belts-photo-by-Alain-Denis
Jean-Philippe Pelletier making his way to the Mur des Patrouilleurs in Gaspésie. Photo: ALAIN DENIS

Since the body of water is relatively warm compared to the air, the difference in temperature creates a recipe for chaos. As the air collects moisture, it moves over land and then releases all its energy. The result? A deluge of snow in a very specific area. That’s what we call the “lake-effect snow”, points out Simon Legault, meteorologist with Environment Canada. In North America, that explains how snow belts are created in and around the Great Lakes.

In Quebec, this meteorological phenomenon underlying snow belts is not documented as clearly. Lake Saint-Jean and certain parts of the St. Lawrence River are hypothetically large enough to create lake-effect snowfall. However, Monts-Valin National Park and the Chic-Chocs Mountains—which experience heavier snowfall than other parts of Quebec—are too far away from these bodies of water to be linked to this phenomenon.

So then how do you explain the endless amounts of snow? “It’s the topography—the general shape of a land—of these areas that makes all the difference,” explains Legault. The Laurentian Wildlife Reserve [near Monts-Valin National Park] is a prime spot for convergence activity. When the wind picks up, it creates a combination of effects that cause the snow to pile up in some areas and not in others. These phenomena are very regional.”

It’s plain to see—some ski resorts in Quebec are snowier than others. Based on the stats released by the Quebec Ski Area Association (ASSQ), ski resorts like Gaspésie, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Charlevoix are among the lucky few. Some of these resorts even manage to get by without having to create any artificial snow at all, explains Camille Chapdeleine, Communications Coordinator at ASSQ.

In any case, the term “snow belt” is more of a buzzword than an actual scientific description of a meteorological phenomenon—which, at the end of the day, requires a very complex and precise set of conditions. But we’re willing to let it slide—especially if it has the power to bless us with powdery slopes instead of icy hard-packed pistes.

Throwback Quebec Style: Q&A with Paul Bride

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Who’s having a multi-sport day?! 😆 @timemmett probably is.
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