Modeling Snowfall Climatologies Using a Mesoscale Model

Reliable snowfall and snow depth observations are often very rare or non-existent in many regions around the world. Given the nature of support to the Department of Defense, providing accurate snowfall and snow depth climatologies in data sparse regions is vital to our mission at the Air Force Combat Climatology Center (AFCCC). A modeling technique has been developed by Meso, Inc. in conjunction with AFCCC that uses a mesoscale numerical model to derive high-resolution climatological statistics for any region around the world, regardless of the availability or non-availability of snowfall observations. This paper discusses the effectiveness of using this modeling technique to calculate snowfall and snow depth climatologies for a region covering Yugoslavia and the Balkans countries. Comparisons are made between modeled and observed maximum snow depth and mean number of days with snow on the ground.