Decadal variability of Russian winter snow accumulation and its associations with Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies

Abstract

Russian winter snow depth data over a 48-year period (1936–1983) are analysed to reveal variation characteristics and associations to Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies using methods of rotated principal component analysis (RPCA), singular spectrum analysis (SSA), and singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis. The study demonstrates that four time scales (4 years interannual, 11.8 years quasidecadal, 20 years bi-decadal and trend) characterize Russian winter snow depth variations. The decadal and longer time scale variations are found to be significantly associated with Atlantic SST anomalies. The trend, which occurred over much of the study region, is associated with SST trends over the northern north and tropical south Atlantic. Bi-decadal snow depth variation over central Siberia is associated with western tropical north Atlantic SSTs. A quasi-decadal variation over western European Russia is connected to a major Atlantic SST variation pattern of opposite signs over alternative latitudinal belts. This study suggests that the connections between the Atlantic Ocean and regional climate may be better reflected at decadal time scales than interannual and seasonal ones, as the dominant variability over the ocean is at slow modes. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society