Study of predicting snowfall intensity in Hokuriku region with a meteorological numerical simulation model

Abstract

The amount of snowcover accumulation in Hokuriku region is not well known over mountaineous area because observing frequency and a number of observatory in the mountaineous area are not enough to obtain necessary data. We attempt to simulate for predicting the snowfall intensity over the whole area with a meteorological numerical simulation model. We found that the simulated snowfall intensity under-estimates the observed intensity although the horizontal patterns of snowfall area and cloud-generating area are simulated well. We also found that realistic values of the roughness length and the albedo at the ground surface play important roles to obtain the accurate horizontal distribution of snowfall under a winter monsoon at Hokuriku region.