Snow Cover Patterns

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When snowshoe hares turn white, they clearly blend in better with a snowy background, which raises some questions about snow cover. How is the fur colour change related to snow cover? Have their been changes over time? I plan to use iNaturalist observations, as well as snow cover data, to explore these questions. This is why it is particularly important to report on the snow cover when adding an observation to the Ontario Snowshoe Hares iNaturalist project.

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I compiled data of snow cover in Ontario from the past 10 years. Specifically, I was looking to compile information on when the first snowfall of the winter occurred at different weather stations across Ontario.

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I have created the following animation to show patterns in the date of first snowfall occurred across the province from 2011-2020. It's a simple way to visualize when snowfall begins at different latitudes in Ontario and how this varies between years. Lighter points in the graph represent earlier dates of first snowfall, while darker (red) points represent later dates of first snowfall.

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