Assessment of Snow Cover Vulnerability over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

By using daily air temperature and precipitation data, and the weather phenomena data of daily snowfall from 98 meteorological stations over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), this paper performs an at-risk evaluation on snowfall and accumulated snow over the QTP under current climate situation and future climate warming condition. When rainfall, snowfall, or accumulated snow weather phenomena occur, critical values are determined based on daily air temperature and precipitation for current climate conditions. Air temperature of 0 degrees C is defined as the critical value of temperature for rainfall or snowfall, while 0 degrees C air temperature and 4.0 mm (autumn) or 3.0 mm (spring) snowfall amounts are defined as the critical values for accumulated snowfall. Analyses based on the above critical values disclose that under current climate condition, stations with at-risk accumulated snow account for 33% and 36% of all stations, and the at-risk snowfall stations reach 78% and 81% in autumn and spring, respectively. Spatially, most stations with at-risk accumulated snow are located on the southern and eastern edge of the QTP, and stations with at-risk snowfall are also apparent at the northern edge. If the air temperature increases by 2.5 degrees C in 2050, only the snowfall at a few at-risk snowfall stations will transform into rainfall, while most at-risk accumulated snow stations will face the problem that snowfall is hardly accumulated. Additionally, most stations will become at-risk accumulated snow stations, indicating that both the snow depth and the snow cover duration will decline in most areas of the QTP, including a delay of the start date and an advancing of the end date of snow cover.