Spatial variability of snow precipitation and accumulation in
COSMO–WRF simulations and radar estimations over complex
terrain
Abstract. Snow distribution in complex alpine terrain and its evolution in the future climate is important in a variety of applications including hydro-power, avalanche forecasting and fresh water resources. However, the relative importance of processes such as cloud-dynamics and pure particle-flow interactions is still barely known and models are essential to investigate these processes. Here, we present very high resolution Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) simulations, which are initialized by 2.2 km resolution Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO) reanalysis (COSMO–WRF). To assess the ability of COSMO–WRF to represent spatial snow precipitation patterns, they are validated against operational weather radar measurements. Estimated WRF precipitation is generally higher than estimated radar precipitation, most likely due to an overestimation of orographic precipitation in the model. The high precipitation also leads to a higher spatial variability in the model at the scale of 10 km. Overall, an autocorrelation and scale analysis of radar and WRF precipitation patterns show that WRF captures the variability relative to the domain wide variability of precipitation patterns down to the scale of few kilometers, but misses quite substantial variability on the smallest scales of a few 100 meters. However, differences of precipitation between 2830 m above sea level and the ground indicate that near-surface processes are active in the model.