Variability of snow cover and frost depth at the Potsdam station, Germany

Abstract

The presented paper examines variability of characteristics of snow cover (snow cover depth, number of days with snow cover and dates of beginning and end of snow cover) and frost depth in Potsdam. The study makes use of a unique long time series of data from the secular meteorological station in Potsdam (Germany), covering the time interval from 1893 to date. The observed behaviour of time series of snow is complex, and not easy to interpret. Even if shrinking snow cover is typically expected in the warming climate of the moderate zone, the change in Potsdam is largely dominated by inter-winter and intra-winter variability, rendering trend detection difficult. Nevertheless, an increasing, statistically significant trend for winter precipitation was detected with almost no changes in the snow fall. A statistical link between the NAO index and the snow cover depth as well as the number of snow cover days was found.