Fig. 3: Date of and degrees to emergence of low-to-no snow.
From: Asymmetric emergence of low-to-no snow in the midlatitudes of the American Cordillera
a–d, Box percentile plots of the latitude band average date of emergence of low-to-no snow (≤30th percentile historical peak SWE; 1950–2000 historical reference period) for the northern (blue; 32° N to 59° N) and southern (green; 32° S to 59° S) midlatitude portions of the American Cordillera. The white lines indicate the 75th, median and 25th percentiles, and the black circles represent the mean. The numbers along the x axis indicate the number of latitude bands that make up the box percentile plot distributions. The date of emergence (a,c) is predicated on back-to-back years of low-to-no snow under three conditions: extreme (at least two years), episodic (at least five years) and persistent (at least ten years). The degrees to emergence (b,d) are local, annual surface air temperature changes from the 1950–2000 reference period at which extreme, episodic and persistent low-to-no-snow conditions first occur at a particular latitude band.
