Snow cover over the Iberian mountains in km-scale global climate simulations: evaluation and projected changes

TL;DR

This study evaluates a high-resolution storm-resolving climate model's ability to simulate and project snow cover changes over Iberian mountains, highlighting its potential for local climate impact assessments in complex terrains.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of a 10 km resolution storm-resolving model in simulating historical snow cover and projecting future reductions without regional downscaling.

Findings

Model captures snow climatology features within data uncertainty.

Projected significant reduction in snow cover season under climate change scenario.

Reductions mainly due to increased temperatures and decreased precipitation.

Abstract

Mountains represent a crucial natural resource for many regions worldwide, particularly in Mediterranean areas such as the Iberian Peninsula, where climate change can have profound consequences. However, due to their coarse resolution, traditional climate models cannot properly represent the complexity of orographic processes. Storm-resolving models, with horizontal resolutions finer than 10 km, offer a path forward to provide high-quality information for local adaptation even in complex terrain. In this work, we assess the performance of one such model, the IFS-FESOM developed within the EU-NextGEMS project, in simulating the historical seasonal snow cover in the main Iberian mountain ranges and projecting climate change effects. It is evaluated against four high-resolution reanalysis-based products, satellite, and in situ observations. Despite a positive bias in the length of the snow cover season and the number of snowfall days, the model can represent features of the snow climatology, such as its elevation dependency, seasonal cycle, and mean covered area, successfully within the range of uncertainty of the reference data. In addition, the projection under the SSP3-7.0 scenario shows a marked reduction of the snow season across almost all of Iberia, with low- to mid-elevations and the southernmost ranges showing the greatest reductions. These changes are linked to reduced snowfall days, caused primarily by rising temperatures but also by decreasing precipitation, particularly in southern and Mediterranean sectors. Our results suggest that storm-resolving simulations can provide local climate projections of snow information in complex terrain without regional downscaling.