Long-term changes and future of snow in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The paper focuses on three topics related to the monitoring of snow cover in the Czech Republic: automatic snow stations, evaluation of water reserves in snow and changes and evolution of snow cover in the Czech Republic from 1961 to 2100. Automatic snow station is a measuring mechanism, which can measure and record the snow water equivalent (SWE) and the total snow depth (SD) in real time. Nowadays there is a network of 17 complete stations (SWE and SD) and 50 snow depth automatic stations and a plan to build 23 more by 2025. Data from snow pillows are an important input for every week evaluation of water reserves in snow. Snow cover and especially the snow water supplies are an important part of the hydrological balance of water quantity in the Czech Republic. The evaluation of water reserves in a snow cover is also an important service for the state-owned water supply companies, for which this information is essential for the handling of waterworks. In the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) we calculate snow water reserves once a week, but the increasing number of automatic stations in combination with model calculations will allow us to estimate water reserves in daily steps in the future. In Central Europe, due to climate change, the parameters related to snow cover are changing. Snow is an important component of precipitation and runoff for this area and has a rather unique position as a source of drinking water.