Snowfall statistics of some SASE field stations in J&K

Abstract

"North-west Himalayan region comprises five mountain ranges. Their orientation and complex terrain influence the weather over the region. Sudden altitudinal changes also affect the weather systems to a considerable extent. Due to the prevailing inhomogeneous topography, various dynamic and thermal processes take place at mesoscale level. In synoptic scale, during winter seasons, weather systems, named, western disturbance (WD): take their southerly track and travel over J&K, HP and hills of western UP, and yield considerable amount of precipitation. On the basis of past historical data collected over J&K region, the pattern of snowfall and its frequency distribution was studied using statistical means. Variation of these snowfall spells was also studied to understand spatial and temporal changes in their distribution. A brief case study of a WD has been carried out to estimate moisture flux inflow over himalayas. "