Identification and regional/spatial extent of rain-dominated winter storms in California's Sierra Nevada

TitleIdentification and regional/spatial extent of rain-dominated winter storms in California's Sierra Nevada
Publication TypeConference Proceedings
Year of Conference1993
AuthorsMcGurk, B. J., Berg N. H., and Kattelmann R. C.
Conference Name61st Annual Western Snow Conference
Series TitleProceedings of the 61st Annual Western Snow Conference
Date PublishedJune 1993
PublisherWestern Snow Conference
Conference LocationQuebec City, Quebec
KeywordsAlgorithm, Classification, Rain dominated, Snow dominated
Abstract

A precipitation type index (PTI) was developed and tested on the record from two meteorological stations in California’s central Sierra Nevada that had visual classification of precipitation as rain, snow, or mixed types. The algorithm used new snowfall depth (S) and total precipitation (P), and was more accurate than classifications based on air temperature. The algorithm [PTI = (P x 100)/(P + S)] was applied to the records from several other mountain stations to identify rain-dominated storms, and to analyze the regional patterns of their magnitude and occurrence. Rain-dominated storms are more frequent, and of greater magnitude, on the north-central west slope of the range than in the south or to the east of the crest of the Sierra Nevada. Rain-dominated storms in the north-central portion of the range are most common during November. In the south and east, no single month dominated the temporal distribution of rain-dominated storms.

URLsites/westernsnowconference.org/PDFs/1993McGurk.pdf