85th AMS Annual Meeting

Monday, 10 January 2005
Global warming and simulated snowfall trends in eastern North America
John P. Krasting, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; and A. J. Broccoli
We present results of a study that illustrate trends of snowfall in Eastern North America using the GFDL-R30 coupled climate model forced with IPCC A2 scenario conditions. The trends in model-predicted snowfall during the peak of the winter months vary with latitude. Positive snowfall trends are present at high latitudes and are associated with increases in precipitation. Negative snowfall trends, however, are found at lower latitudes, where there is a weak negative correlation between snowfall and temperature in the control run. Similar trends were also found in the North American climatological record of the twentieth century. Enhancement of the global water vapor convergence/divergence pattern is examined as a dynamical process that is responsible for different snowfall trends at different latitudes.

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