Analysis of Snowfall Storms Dynamics in the Western US

Much of the snowpack in the Western US mountains comes from a handful of snowfall storms. Climate change is jeopardizing this resource as the temperature rises and snow melts quickly. We are interested in understanding if there is a characteristic difference between where the snow falls in relationship to the temperature of the storms. A better characterization of where the snow if falling allow us to quantify how much snow water is and will be available in warmer climate for water resources applications.

In this project the student will analyze a novel snow water equivalent dataset estimating snow at 500 m resolution for the Western US, as well as ancillary data from atmospheric reanalysis (precipitation, air temperature, etc).