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Trends and variability in rain‐on‐snow events
Author(s) -
Cohen Judah,
Ye Hengchun,
Jones Justin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl065320
Subject(s) - north atlantic oscillation , arctic oscillation , climatology , snow , climate change , snow cover , latitude , teleconnection , physical geography , geography , environmental science , geology , oceanography , el niño southern oscillation , northern hemisphere , meteorology , geodesy
We analyzed rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events in two reanalysis products. ROS events are a relatively rare phenomenon outside of a few regional maxima including western Eurasia, the higher elevations of western North America, the northeastern United States, and southeastern Canada. ROS events occur at the high latitudes, especially away from the continental interior, and no robust trends were found in the frequency of ROS events. We also explored the variability of ROS events with dominant large climate modes. The most robust relationship was found with the Arctic Oscillation or North Atlantic Oscillation (AO/NAO). The most notable variability associated with the AO/NAO was a northeast/southwest dipole feature across western Eurasia. More ROS events were found for northeastern Europe for the positive phase of the AO/NAO due to the increased frequency of rainfall. However, more ROS events were found for Central Europe for the negative phase of the AO/NAO due to the increased frequency of snow cover.