A Climatology of Snow-to-Liquid Ratio for the Contiguous United States

Baxter, Martin; Graves, Charles E.; Moore, James T.

doi:10.1175/waf856.1

Cited by 73 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This overall mean density is consistent with previous snow density mapping based on homogenized precipitation data for lowerelevation stations in southwest British Columbia (Mekis & Vincent, 2011), and the range of manually measured snow densities fall within the range of densities reported in the climate literature (Baxter et al, 2005;Judson & Doesken, 2000;Kay, 2006;Mekis & Vincent, 2011). Annual time series of several winter season statistical summary measures of Pig Alley snow density and air temperature are shown in Table 2, and the full dataset is provided as a supplemental file with this paper.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…3). It is also known that air temperature generally tends to be positively correlated with snow density (Baxter et al, 2005;Dubé, 2003;Mekis & Vincent, 2011), which was confirmed here (see Figs 3 and 4). Thus, the positive association between the PDO 2 index and mean snow density is physically plausible.…”

Section: Applications a Climate Influencessupporting

confidence: 86%

“…The somewhat coarse whole-centimetre measurement interval for snow core depth (see above) was a key consideration here. A similar depth and SWE constraint has been applied in other recent snow studies (Alcott & Steenburgh, 2010;Baxter, Graves, & Moore, 2005;Roebber, Bruening, Schultz, & Cortinas, 2003). In the dataset presented here, fewer than 40 samples were eliminated by this depth and water-content restriction.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Twenty-Seven Years of Manual Fresh Snowfall Density Measurements on Whistler Mountain, British Columbia

Barton

2017

Atmosphere-Ocean

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Snow density is important information for a wide range of activities including avalanche control, marketing, building-code development, weather forecasting, and water supply forecasting. Extended recent high-quality datasets from the mountainous regions of the Pacific Northwest coastal area are rare. This paper presents a study of an unusually long and continuous (January 1990 to April 2016) manually collected dataset of fresh snowfall measurements for Whistler Mountain, British Columbia, Canada. The dataset consists of snowboard core measurements that were collected by Whistler-Blackcomb ski patrol staff twice daily for avalanche control and resort-marketing purposes. These records were collated, transcribed, quality controlled, and made computer accessible in this study. A discussion of the characteristics of the data collection site and an assessment of data reliability are presented. Two examples of the many purposes to which this high-quality dataset might be put were studied. Climatic teleconnections to winter (December-February) mean snow density were examined, which revealed a positive relationship to the quadratic form of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation pattern (i.e., PDO 2 ). In addition, an analysis of daily snow density relationships to air mass types was performed, which suggested that higher (lower) densities are associated with maritime inflow (arctic outflow) conditions. Both of these relationships appear to be mediated by the positive correlation between snow density and air temperature.Based on the full dataset (N = 1275 individual snow density measurements) for all months with measured snowfall, annual snowfall season (November to May) mean snow densities ranged from 77 kg m −3 to 109 kg m −3 with an overall mean of 91 kg m −3 , giving an overall snow-depth to water-depth ratio of 11:1.RÉSUMÉ [Traduit par la rédaction] La densité de la neige s'avère une information importante pour une large gamme d'activités, y compris la prévention des avalanches, la publicité, la rédaction de codes du bâtiment, la pré-vision météorologique et la prévision d'approvisionnement en eau. Les longues séries de données récentes et de haute qualité restent rares pour les montagnes de la côte nord-ouest de la région pacifique. Nous présentons l'étude d'une série de mesures de neige fraîche inhabituellement longue et continue (janvier 1990 à avril 2016), qui a été relevée manuellement au mont Whistler en Colombie-Britannique, Canada. Deux fois par jour, pour des raisons de prévention des avalanches et de publicité, la patrouille de ski de Whistler-Blackcomb a recueilli des carottes de neige à partir d'une table à neige. Ces relevés ont été colligés, transcrits, vérifiés et informatisés pour cette étude. Nous présentons aussi les caractéristiques du site de mesure et une évaluation de la fiabilité des données. De plus, nous avons étudié deux exemples des nombreuses utilités de cette série de données de haute qualité. Nous avons examiné les téléconnexions climatologiques avec la densité moyenne de la neige en ...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Applications a Climate Influencessupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Twenty-Seven Years of Manual Fresh Snowfall Density Measurements on Whistler Mountain, British Columbia

Barton

2017

Atmosphere-Ocean

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“…In both cases the NARR precipitation is found to be comparable to an analysis created using NWS Cooperative Network data, which has been successfully used in other studies involving frozen precipitation (e.g. Baxter et al, 2005;Brennan and Lackmann, 2005). This comparison suggests that the NARR precipitation in these events was not a result of spurious grid scale precipitation.…”

Section: Mesoscale Model and Datasupporting

confidence: 63%

The use of potential vorticity inversion to evaluate the effect of precipitation on downstream mesoscale processes

Baxter

Schumacher

Boustead³

2011

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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“…in accurately estimating snowfall totals. An analysis of snow-toliquid ratios over the United Stated by Baxter et al (2005) showed that the Buffalo area had the greatest national variability in that parameter, and found that they vary substantially between coastal and inland locations. Thus, our current focus in improvement of the dependent variable is aimed at potential distortions that these high variations in snow-to-liquid ratios can have in the degree of predictability of our multivariate regression model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multivariate analysis of lake-effect snowstorms in western New York

Pereira¹,

Muscato²

2013

J. Operational Meteor.

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The Great Lakes region of the United States is subjected to a wintertime convective phenomenon known as lake-effect snow (LES). These events are capable of producing significant quantities of snow over localized areas by developing elongated bands that tap into heat and moisture exchanges between the warm lake surface and the overlying continental polar air. Several factors are believed to affect the snowfall intensity associated with LES events, including the ice coverage over the lake where the snowbands originate. Improvements in the quality of snowfall forecasts associated with these LES events require an approach that uses a larger number of events than used in previously investigated case studies. The intensity of 91 LES events was assessed using the total volume of snow (snow depth multiplied by snow coverage area) per day in western New York as reported by the National Weather Service in Buffalo, New York, from 1998-2011. These events were cross-referenced against the fetch, capping inversion height, thermodynamic instability, wind speed, and ice coverage over Lake Erie during each event. A multivariate regression revealed that only fetch, inversion height, and ice coverage were statistically significant in determining the intensity of the LES event, with ice coverage having the greatest impact. These parameters accounted for approximately 30% of the overall snowfall volume variability in our LES events. An examination of two events demonstrated that other environmental controls-such as orography and low-level moisture-may have affected the quality of the snowfall predicted by our regression.

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A Climatology of Snow-to-Liquid Ratio for the Contiguous United States

Cited by 73 publications

References 12 publications

Twenty-Seven Years of Manual Fresh Snowfall Density Measurements on Whistler Mountain, British Columbia

Twenty-Seven Years of Manual Fresh Snowfall Density Measurements on Whistler Mountain, British Columbia

The use of potential vorticity inversion to evaluate the effect of precipitation on downstream mesoscale processes

Multivariate analysis of lake-effect snowstorms in western New York

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