Snowfall in the Alps: Evaluation and Projections based on the EURO-CORDEX Regional Climate Models

Snow is an important resource for the Alpine region, be it for tourism, hydro power generation or water management. In addition, heavy snowfall events can lead to destructive effects, which range from avalanches and floods to road or rail damage. Future projections of snowfall are highly relevant for federal offices, re-insurances, forest management or for avalanche defence planning. However, global climate simulations at coarse resolution can only partly address this issue over the topographically complex Alpine domain. Therefore, we here exploit the most current set of high resolution regional climate model (RCM) scenarios for the European continent carried out within the EURO-CORDEX initiative at a spatial resolution of 12 km.