The Effects of Snow Cover on Midlatitude Cyclones in the Great Plains

The impacts of snow cover on the structure and intensity of midlatitude cyclones are examined. The fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (Penn State–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) was used to simulate eight synoptic events in which a well-developed cyclone moved across the central and northern Great Plains region of the United States. Two simulations were performed for each event: a control run with the actual snow cover and a perturbed run with an extensive snow cover. In all of the cases, increasing the snow cover, and thereby reducing the available potential energy, weakened the cyclones. Among the eight cases, the averaged minimum central low pressure of the cyclones in the perturbed runs was approximately 4 mb greater than the control cyclones. The reduction in temperature and moisture in the lower atmosphere was most pronounced in the warm sector, which significantly reduced the thermal and moisture gradients near the surface. This resulted in ...