Snow Covers

Global climate change and variability, particularly at regional levels, are not completely understood. Therefore, there are many significant

Earth has experienced many episodes of dramatic climate changes with different periods in earth history. There have been periods during which the entire planet has been covered in ice and at another time it has been scorchingly hot and dry. In this regards, earth has experienced at least three major periods of long- term frigid climate and ice ages interspersed with periods of warm climate. The last glacial period which current glaciers are the result of it, occurring during the last years of Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years age (Clayton, 1997). Indeed, glaciers present sensitive indicators of climate change and global warming and by estimating and monitoring the dynamic evolution of these ice masses, several

From the CER maps (Figure 9), it can be observed that in 2013 ISMR the entire region had witnessed high CER values while other years were partially cover by cloud drops of different radii. The high rainfall intensity during 2013 ISMR could be the manifestation of the high CER values observed during that year compared to the other years (Figure 12). However, the low CER values in the other years can be seen in conjugation with high aerosol loading during that period. Similar trend is also observed in LWP plots for the study area during 2012-15 ISMR (Fig 13). It is evident from the figure 9 that LWP varies from low to high values over the region while, it is more homogeneous in 2014 and 2015 ISMR. The OLR was considerably

where PXIN is the mean monthly precipitation for the Xinjiang province of China; and x is the month in which the average precipitation occurred.

The Sierra Nevada Range has seen less snow accumulation over the past decade. The depth and breadth of the seasonal snowpack in any given year depends on whether a winter is wet or dry. Wet winters tend to stack up a deep snowpack, while dry ones keep it shallow. By 2015, long-term hot and dry conditions in California and Nevada had brought snowpack to historically low levels. Sierra Nevada has generally peaked and begins to melt by the beginning of April. Runoff from meltwater helps replenish rivers and reservoirs near it.

The region to the east of the Cascades is typified by generally sunnier and drier conditions as compared to the PNW. Annual average precipitation across the Inland Northwest (INW) is less than 50cm, with a greater percentage of that precipitation coming during the late spring and early summer months. Lower average annual precipitation amounts exist even within the higher elevation mountainous areas of northern Idaho, northeastern Oregon, and western Montana, with annual averages of only 150-250cm as compared to the 200-500cm MAP in the mountain ranges west of the Cascade crest (CESE, UW). The sub-regional variability of MAP within the INW exists primarily as a result of orographic effects (is this correct???).

Annual rainfall increases from 100 mm to 2,000 mm along the latitude within the central region (Montecinos and Aceituno, 2003). The studies on climate variability in the region reported a decrease in the precipitation and a diminutive increase in temperature (Favier et al., 2009; Rabatel et al., 2011). The complex landscapes of the Andes create numerous microclimatic zones in the study region (Rosenblüth et al., 1997).The varying climatic conditions and topography along the Andes influence the development of glacial masses. Therefore, we divided the study region into four sub regions based on climate and topography. These divisions help overcome statistical bias and avoid overlying dissimilar radar signal footprints (Kääb et al., 2012). These four climatic sub regions are DC (31°S–35°S), NW (35.1°S–46°S), SPI (48.15°S–51.4°S), and CDI (54.20°S–55°S) (Figure 2) (Lopez et al., 2010; Williams and Ferrigno,

Montane forests occur in the tropics on the windward side of mountains at elevations between 1000 and 3500 meters (Scatena, Hamilton, & Juvik, 1995). These high-altitude environments generate orographic lift, the process of a geographic barrier forcing an air mass to ascent from a low to high altitude, which rapidly cools the air, and condenses water vapor into clouds (Fabry & Lapointe, 2015). At sea level, tropical regions also receive larger year-round energy inputs from the sun than higher latitude areas, which promotes greater evaporation, thus increasing orographic lift (Fabry, & Lapointe, 2015). On the mountain, however, the persistent cloudiness lowers radiation, which reduces air temperature and light availability. (Reinhardt, Smith, & Carter,

The maximum snow depth reaches up to 1500mm (Matsumura, 2014). The maximum hourly rainfall occurred is 32mm on 04-09-2013. The slope failure has happened on 17-10-2013. 47mm of daily cumulative rainfall has been observed during 16-10-2013. In this case, the slope failure has also been influenced by the excess amount of water supply (approximately 1m3/day). The monitored data i.e. rainfall, snow depth, soil water content and pore water pressure are given in Fig.3(a).

In addition, its cold weather begins in December and ends in March, averaging at nineteen degrees Celsius (Weather Spark). The nation’s temperature never tends to reach below negative five degrees Celsius or above thirty-five degrees Celsius. Between December to April, most precipitation takes place. Its average precipitation being 400mm in the southeastern monsoon areas rises as one moves from the western side to the eastern side of the mountains. While, highlands experience snowfall in December-March, lowlands experience rainfall between December-May. As the snow melts and rain that flow out the Hindu Kush pool into the low areas, rivers are able to flow through the mountain gorges.

Throughout the centuries, the Quaternary period has experienced fluctuating climates almost see-sawing between sudden periods of global warming to full blown glaciation periods covering most of Northern Europe and North America. There are many causes theorised for these fluctuating changes in climates like an anthropogenic climate change which is human caused change that interacts with natural variations and many more.

Figure 1 shows two aspects of the results. The left side displays the information about the amount of greenhouse gases and ozone changes in “500 hPa geopotential height trends (m) are for 1979–2000” (Schindell). The top left shows the computer model predictions while the bottom left shows what existed during the 1979-2000 time frame. The right side of figure 1 shows the “surface air temperature trends (C) are for 1969–2000” (Schindell). Both of these images show the temperatures in the arctic regions are cool and the middle latitude regions are warmer. This is an effect of the changes occurring with the greenhouse and ozone gases.

Climate and topography are two very important factors that may influence industries profitability and productivity. Is important for business leaders to recognize how climate and topography factors impacts different industries. Recognizing climate and topography could be of assistance for businesses venturing into the global business environment arena. Climate and topography are factors of huge importance when determining location and strategic planning. One of the industries most affected by climate and topography is the transportation industry.

The DTR was mostly below the mean from 2000 to 2014 while it was above the mean from 1984 to 1989, implying that the daily temperature range is significantly decreasing at all AEZs with varying confidence level. Similarly, significantly decreasing trends in DTR has been reported in Bale Econ region, particularly, at Filtu station (-0.18 °C decade-1) and DoloOdo station (-0.13 °C decade-1) over the 1983–2013 period respectively (Teferi 2017). Moreover, the work by Zhou et al. (2009) documented that there has been a decreasing trend in DTRs in some other part of the world, mainly in arid and semiarid regions.

Available and complete climate data of daily maximum and minimum temperature and daily total rainfall amount was collected from National Meteorological Agency (NMA) spanning from 1983 to 2014. The collected data was a 4 km by 4 km gridded dataset, which combines both the observed station data and relatively high-resolution satellite image. It lies within latitude 6.4 ° – 7.1° N and longitude 37.4 ° – 38.2° E. Owing to this, the preference is given to the gridded data over the station data, which had many missing values not only on daily values but also on observed years in each AEZ. For comparison purpose, using the latitude and longitude, three main stations were selected to represent the study agro-ecological zones, including Bilate