Jay Lawrimore, Thomas R. Karl, and Mike Squires

AMS Journal of Hydrometeorology

Published date September 25, 2014

Trends and Variability in Severe Snowstorms East of the Rocky Mountains

  • Identifies the top 100 severe snowstorms in each of six regions of the eastern and central USA over the period of 1901–2013
  • Defines severe snowstorms by the areal coverage of snowfall exceeding region-specific threshold snowfall amounts related to significant impacts
  • Finds that the median date of occurrence of late season (after Feb. 1) storms is trending toward earlier dates in the southern regions where air temperature plays a dominant role in modulating the occurrence of such storms
  • This corresponds with general warming spring temperatures in the USA