New climate models tend to overestimate snow mass especially in winter

A study examined how well the new CMIP6 climate models can describe the mass of seasonal snow in the Northern Hemisphere. The study also examined if the possible errors in the snow mass simulated in the models can be explained by errors in temperature or in the amount of water.

Photo: Adobe Stock.

The study showed that while climate models tend to overemphasize the mass of snow in winter, there is considerable dispersion among the models. Especially in northern parts of Finland and on the coasts, the amount of snow in the models was clearly too small compared with observations. As the spring advances, variation among the models increases.

Further information:

Researcher Kerttu Kouki, Finnish Meteorological Institute, p. 0295 394 212, kerttu.kouki@fmi.fi

Full citation of publication: Kouki, K., Räisänen, P., Luojus, K., Luomaranta, A., & Riihelä, A. (2022). Evaluation of Northern Hemisphere snow water equivalent in CMIP6 models during 1982–2014. The Cryosphere, 16(3), 1007-1030. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1007-2022

Scientific article is available on The Cryosphere.

Science-newsWinterSnowClimate Model