Basic Study on Snowfall Forecasting in the Chuetsu District

Abstract

Snow surveys just after snowfall events and radar observations have been conducted to study the snowfall distribution in the Chuetsu district, Niigata, Japan. It was shown that the snowfall distribution is mostly dominated by orographical factors-the main effect being that of ground-forced-induced ascending current of air. A three-dimensional numerical model of the atmosphere incorporating orography was used to estimate the regions where the ascending current of air can occur. They are in a good corespondence with the snowfall regions derived from radar data.