Changes in the snow water equivalent in mountainous basins in Slovakia over recent decades

Abstract

Abstract. Changes in snowpack and duration of snow cover can cause changes in the regime of snow and rainsnow induced floods. The recent IPCC report suggests that, in snow-dominated regions such as the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains and the northern parts of Europe, spring snowmelt floods may occur earlier in a future climate because of warmer winters, and flood hazards may increase during wetter and warmer winters, with more frequent rain and less frequent snowfall. The monitoring and modelling of snow accumulation and snow melting in mountainous catchments is rather complicated, especially due to the high spatial variability of snow characteristics and the limited availability of terrestrial hydrological data. An evaluation of changes in the snow water equivalent (SWE) during the period of 1961-2010 in the Upper Hron river basin, which is representative of the mountainous regions in Central Slovakia, is provided in this paper. An analysis of the snow cover was performed using simulated values of the snow water equivalent by a conceptual semi-distributed hydrological rainfall-runoff model. Due to the poor availability of the measured snow water equivalent data, the analysis was performed using its simulated values. Modelling of the SWE was performed in different altitude zones by a conceptual semi-distributed hydrological rainfall-runoff model. The evaluation of the results over the past five decades indicates a decrease in the simulated snow water equivalent and the snow duration in each altitude zone and in all months of the winter season. Significant decreasing trends were found for December, January and February, especially in the highest altitude zone.

Experimental measurements for improved understanding and simulation of snowmelt events in the Western Tatra Mountains

“…Although floods caused solely by melting snow are not very frequent, rain on snow events are very often causes of large floods (Merz and Blöschl, 2003;Pekárová and Halmová, 2009). Improved knowledge on spatial variability of snow accumulation and melt transferred into better models may thus help with operational flood forecasting (Nester et al, 2012;Weingartner et al 2003), reservoir management (Blöschl and Kirnbauer, 1991;DeWalle and Rango, 2008) or estimation of runoff changes in mountain areas caused by climate change impacts (Hlavčová et al, 2015;Kotríková et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2015).…”

Projected Changes in the Tibetan Plateau Snowpack Resulting From Rising Global Temperatures

“…SWE is more useful than other snow parameters to attribute snowpack change for planning and management of water supplies (Egli et al., 2009) given that it simulates both snowmelt and streamflow and hence completes the catchment water balance (Barnhart et al., 2016; Berg & Mulroy, 2006; Harpold & Brooks, 2018; Smith & Marshall, 2010). Moreover, SWE has a great impact in projecting drought and floods (Jörg‐Hess et al., 2015), including the impact its variability in space can have on spring floods in large basins (Hlavčová et al., 2015).…”

“…snowmelt and streamflow and hence completes the catchment water balance (Barnhart et al, 2016;Berg & Mulroy, 2006;Harpold & Brooks, 2018;Smith & Marshall, 2010). Moreover, SWE has a great impact in projecting drought and floods (Jörg-Hess et al, 2015), including the impact its variability in space can have on spring floods in large basins (Hlavčová et al, 2015).…”