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Patterns of trends in niveograph characteristics across the western United States from snow telemetry data

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Abstract

The snowpack is changing across the globe, as the climate warms and changes. We used daily snow water equivalent (SWE) niveograph (time series of SWE) data from 458 snow telemetry (SNOTEL) stations for the period 1982 through 2012. Nineteen indices based on amount, timing, time length, and rates were used to describe the annual temporal evolution in SWE accumulation and ablation. The trends in these annual indices were computed over the time period for each station using the Theil-Sen slope. These trends were then clustered into four groups to determine the spatial pattern of SWE trends. Temperature and precipitation data were extracted from the PRISM data set, due to the shorter time period of temperature measurement at the SNOTEL stations.

Results show that SNOTEL stations can be clustered in four clusters according to the observed trends in snow indices. Cluster 1 stations are mostly located in the Eastern- and South-eastern most parts of the study area and they exhibit a generalized decrease in the indices related with peak SWE and snow accumulation. Those stations recorded a negative trend in precipitation and an increase in temperature. Cluster 4 that is mostly restricted to the North and North-west of the study area shows an almost opposite pattern to cluster 1, due to months with positive trends and a more moderate increase of temperature. Stations grouped in clusters 2 and 3 appear mixed with clusters 1 and 4, in general they show very little trends in the snow indices.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this work was provided by the NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program Project NNX11AQ66G “Improved Characterization of Snow Depth in Complex Terrain Using Satellite Lidar Altimetry” (Principal Investigator Dr. Michael Jasinski from NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center). Thanks are due to Fergus Reig Gracia from IPE for extracting all the data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESS-Watershed Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1472, USA

    S. R. Fassnacht

  2. Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1375, USA

    S. R. Fassnacht

  3. Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1499, USA

    S. R. Fassnacht

  4. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, CSIC, Campus de Aula Dei, 50080, Huesca, Spain

    J. I. López-Moreno

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  1. S. R. Fassnacht
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Correspondence to S. R. Fassnacht.

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Data Access

The SNOTEL daily data are available from the National Water and Climate Center of the Natural Resources Conservation Service at <http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/> (last access 25 January 2020). The spatial data used in Fig. 1 were obtained from the US Geological Survey National Viewer Data set <viewer.nationalmap.gov/advanced-viewer> (last access 21 February 2019). The PRISM data set was obtained from <http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu> (last access 25 January 2020).

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Fassnacht, S.R., López-Moreno, J.I. Patterns of trends in niveograph characteristics across the western United States from snow telemetry data. Front. Earth Sci. 14, 315–325 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-020-0813-5

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