Wintertime climate factors controlling snow resource decline in Finland

Abstract

Numerous studies have reported significant declines in snow resources in Finland and elsewhere during the 20th century. To identify the main climate factors controlling these declines in Finland, this study evaluated long-term variations and trends in wintertime climate, snowpack hydrological processes (SHPs) and continuous snow cover duration (CSCD), and their links to atmospheric circulation patterns (ACPs). Analyses were conducted using observed daily climatological time series and simulated SHPs at three stations in southern (Kaisaniemi), central (Kajaani) and northern (Sodankylä) Finland with about 100 years of data. The Mann-Kendall nonparametric test was used to detect significant trends, the Pearson's coefficient (r) to identify relationships within snow-related variables, and Spearman's coefficient (ρ) to measure correlations of these variables with ACPs. Sensitivity of the snow-related variables with projected changes in temperature and precipitation was assessed. The results showed increases in wintertime temperature only at Kaisaniemi, but decreases in wintertime precipitation, snowfall and snow water equivalent (SWE) and shorter CSCD at all stations. In general, variations in wintertime temperature were positively associated with the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). However, wintertime precipitation showed significant relationships with the East Atlantic/West Russia (EA/WR), AO and West Pacific (WP) patterns in southern, central and northern Finland, respectively. SHPs and CSCD in southern Finland were associated with the same ACP influencing wintertime temperature (AO), and those in central and northern areas with the patterns influencing wintertime precipitation (EA, EA/WR and AO). Thus, declines in snow resources in Finland are mainly the result of reductions in snowfall owing to both wintertime warming and decreased precipitation at Kaisaniemi, while only to decreases in wintertime precipitation at Kajaani and Sodankylä stations. However, increase in precipitation (up to 30%) plays an important role in offsetting effects of temperature warming (up to 4 °C) on snow resource decline in Finland.