Advances in Geosciences www.adv-geosci.net 1680-7340 1680-7359 26 11th EGU Plinius Conference on Mediterranean Storms (2009) 2010 10.5194/adgeo-26-93-2010 http://www.adv-geosci.net/26/93/2010/ http://www.adv-geosci.net/26/93/2010/adgeo-26-93-2010.html http://www.adv-geosci.net/26/93/2010/adgeo-26-93-2010.pdf 93 97 2010-09-01 Connecting European snow cover variability with large scale atmospheric patterns E. Bartolini elisa.bartolini@polito.it P. Claps P. D'Odorico Dipartimento di Idraulica, Trasporti e Infrastrutture Civili, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 10129 Torino, Italy Department of environmental sciences, University of Virginia, 291 McCormick Road, P.O. Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA, USA Winter snowfall and its temporal variability are important factors in the development of water management strategies for snow-dominated regions. For example, mountain regions of Europe rely on snow for recreation, and on snowmelt for water supply and hydropower. It is still unclear whether in these regions the snow regime is undergoing any major significant change. Moreover, snow interannual variability depends on different climatic variables, such as precipitation and temperature, and their interplay with atmospheric and pressure conditions. This paper uses the EASE Grid weekly snow cover and Ice Extent database from the National Snow and Ice Data Center to assess the possible existence of trends in snow cover across Europe. This database provides a representation of snow cover fields in Europe for the period 1972–2006 and is used here to construct snow cover indices, both in time and space. These indices allow us to investigate the historical spatial and temporal variability of European snow cover fields, and to relate them to the modes of climate variability that are known to affect the European climate. We find that both the spatial and temporal variability of snow cover are strongly related to the Arctic Oscillation during wintertime. 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