Quantifying the role of the snowpack in generating water available for run‐off during rain‐on‐snow events from snow pillow records

Rain‐on‐snow events have generated major floods around the world, particularly in coastal, mountainous regions. Most previous studies focused on a limited number of major rain‐on‐snow events or were based primarily on model results, largely due to a lack of long‐term records from lysimeters or other...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inHydrological processes Vol. 31; no. 23; pp. 4136 - 4150
Main Authors Trubilowicz, Joel W., Moore, R. Dan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 15.11.2017
Subjects
Atmospheric precipitations
Coastal zone
Enthalpy
Instrumentation
Long-term records
Lysimeters
Moisture content
mountain hydrology
Mountains
Rain
Rainfall
rain‐on‐snow
Regions
Runoff
Sensible heat
Snow
Snow pillows
Snowmelt
Snowpack
War
Water
Water content
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Rain‐on‐snow events have generated major floods around the world, particularly in coastal, mountainous regions. Most previous studies focused on a limited number of major rain‐on‐snow events or were based primarily on model results, largely due to a lack of long‐term records from lysimeters or other instrumentation for quantifying event water balances. In this analysis, we used records from five automated snow pillow sites in south coastal British Columbia, Canada, to reconstruct event water balances for 286 rain‐on‐snow events over a 10‐year period. For large rain‐on‐snow events (event rainfall >40 mm), snowmelt enhanced the production of water available for run‐off (WAR) by approximately 25% over rainfall alone. For smaller events, a range of antecedent and meteorological factors influenced WAR generation, particularly the antecedent liquid water content of the snowpack. Most large events were associated with atmospheric rivers. Rainfall dominated WAR generation during autumn and winter events, whereas snowmelt dominated during spring and summer events. In the majority of events, the sensible heat of rain contributed less than 10% of the total energy consumed by snowmelt. This analysis illustrated the importance of understanding the amount of rainfall occurring at high elevations during rain‐on‐snow events in mountainous regions.
ISSN:0885-6087
1099-1085
DOI:10.1002/hyp.11310