Temporal Trend Analyses of Alpine Data Using North American Regional Reanalysis and In Situ Data: Temperature, Wind Speed, Precipitation, and Derived Blowing Snow

Across the globe, wind speed trends have shown a slight decline for in situ meteorological datasets. Yet few studies have assessed long-term wind speed trends for alpine regions or how such trends could influence snow transport and distribution. Alpine-region meteorological stations are sparsely distributed, and their records are short. To increase spatial and temporal coverage, use of modeled data is appealing, but the level of agreement between modeled and in situ data is unknown for alpine regions. Data agreement, temporal trends, and the potential effects on snow distribution were evaluated using two in situ sites in an alpine region [Niwot Ridge in Colorado and the Glacier Lakes Ecological Experiments Station (GLEES) in Wyoming] and the corresponding grid cells of the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR). Temperature, precipitation, and wind speed variables were used to assess blowing-snow trends at annual, seasonal, and daily scales. The correlation between NARR and in situ datasets showed that temperature data were correlated but that wind speed and precipitation were not. NARR wind speed data were systematically lower when compared with in situ data, yet the frequency of wind events was captured. Overall, there were not many significant differences between NARR and in situ wind speed trends at annual, seasonal, and daily scales, aside from GLEES daily values. This finding held true even when trends presented opposite signatures and slopes, which was likely a result of low trend slopes. The lack of agreement between datasets prohibited the use of NARR to broaden analyses for blowing-snow dynamics in alpine regions.