Climate sensitivity of snow cover duration in Austria

Author(s)

Michael Hantel, Martin Ehrendorfer

Abstract

The number of days with snow cover at Austrian climate stations,

normalized by the maximum possible snow days within a season, is denoted

n. This seasonal relative snow cover duration is considered a function

of station height H and of the seasonal mean temperature T over Europe.

When T increases, n decreases and vice versa. The function becomes

saturated both for high stations at low European temperature ('always

snow', n = 1) and for low stations at high temperature ('never snow', n =

0). In the saturated regions, the sensitivity s = partial derivative

n(H, T)partial derivative T is practically zero, while in the transition

region, s is extreme. The observed interannual fluctuations of T are

considered here as simulation of a possible climate shift. s is

determined for the climate stations of Austria from its snow cover

record [1961-1990, 84 stations between 153 and 3105 m above sea level

(a.s.l.)] by fitting the data of n for each individual station (local

mode) as well as for all Austrian stations (global mode) with a

hyperbolic tangent function. In the global mode, s reaches an extreme

value of - 0.34 +/- 0.04 K^-1 in winter and - 0.46 +/- 0.13 K^-1 in

spring.

The implications of these results are discussed. Included in this

discussion is the fact that a rise in the European temperature by 1 K

may reduce the length of the snow cover period in the Austrian Alps by

about 4 weeks in winter and 6 weeks in spring. However, these extreme

values apply only to the height of maximum sensitivity (575 m in winter,

1373 m in spring); the actual sensitivity of individual stations

Meteorological Society.

Organisation(s)

Department of Meteorology and Geophysics

External organisation(s)

Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck

Journal

International Journal of Climatology

Volume

20

Pages

615-640

No. of pages

26

ISSN

0899-8418

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0088(200005)20:6<615::AID-JOC489>3.0.CO;2-0

Publication date

2000

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

1030 Physics, Astronomy

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 - Climate Action

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/6786ea78-cfa2-4586-bc6d-058585a30845

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