Occurrence of blowing snow events at an alpine site over a 10-year period: Observations and modelling

Blowing snow events control the evolution of the snow pack in mountainous areas and cause inhomogeneous snow distribution. The goal of this study is to identify the main features of blowing snow events at an alpine site and assess the ability of the detailed snowpack model Crocus to reproduce the occurrence of these events in a 1D configuration. We created a database of blowing snow events observed over 10 years at our experimental site. Occurrences of blowing snow events were divided into cases with and without concurrent falling snow. Overall, snow transport is observed during 10.5% of the time in winter and occurs with concurrent falling snow 37.3% of the time. Wind speed and snow age control the frequency of occurrence. Model results illustrate the necessity of taking the wind-dependence of falling snow grain characteristics into account to simulate periods of snow transport and mass fluxes satisfactorily during those periods. The high rate of false alarms produced by the model is investigated in detail for winter 2010/2011 using measurements from snow particle counters.

► We build a unique 10-year database of blowing snow events at an alpine site.
► Snow transport is observed at least 10.5% of the time in winter.
► Snow particles counters show potential improvements for the database.
► The Crocus snowpack model simulates satisfactorily the occurrence of blowing snow events.
► Wind effects on snow grains control the evolution of the modelled threshold wind speed.