Development of a regional snowfall impact scale and snowstorm database at the National Climatic Data Center

NOAA's national Climatic Data Center began producing the Regional Snowfall Impact Scale (ReSIS) as an experimental product during the 2010-2011 snow season. The index uses snowfall and population information in an attempt to quantify societal impacts. The index is calculated separately for each of the six eastern NCDC Regions in order to discriminate impacts between regions. We have analyzed 475 storms between 1900 and the present, so ReSIS can be used to put impacts into a century-scale historical perspective. A byproduct of this process is a database of snowstorms back to 1900. For each snowstorm, the database includes starting/ending dates, daily snowfall, and storm total snowfall at stations within the geographic extent of the storm. This data can be used for GIS and non-GIS applications. Examples from past storms will show how ReSIS is able to discriminate impacts between regions and how the snowstorm database can be used to quantify transportation impacts.