Comprehensive analysis of snow cover in the south of Russia

Abstract

Snow cover is one of the components of the natural environment that determines the weather and climate. In recent decades, there have been changes in all characteristics of the snow cover, which are associated with climate warming. This work is devoted to the analysis of changes in various characteristics of snow cover in different climatic zones of the Caucasus region for the period 1960-2018 and the construction of a regression model of seasonal variability of snow cover thickness (SCT) in the south of the European territory of Russia (ETR). Based on the data from the series of snow cover thickness, the number of days from the snow cover (SC), the dates of the beginning and end of the SC descent, the dates of the establishment / destruction of the stable SC in the cold seasons of 1961-2018 in the south of the ETR, an assessment of the change in these characteristics was carried out. As a result of the analysis, it was found that, against the background of global warming, the number of days with snow cover decreases, the dates of the beginning and descent of a stable SC are shifted towards a reduction in the duration of the SC occurrence, and at the same time, an increase in the SC height is observed. A regression model of seasonal variability of the thickness of the snow cover has been built. The analysis of the seasonal variability of the SCT showed that the thickness of the snow cover for the southern regions of Russia has a pronounced seasonal variation with a determination coefficient no worse than 55%. The fields of the parameters of the seasonal variation are quite smooth, and their variability is well physically conditioned.