Fig. 2: Modeled and observed change in SSI from 1950–2013.
From: Recent decreases in snow water storage in western North America
a The annual VIC-based change in SSI, reported as ΔSSI per decade (1950–2013), for all grid cells with \(\overline{{{{{{\rm{SSI}}}}}}}\) ≥ 0, and b for grid cells where the change in SSI is statistically significant (p < 0.05). Panel c shows the SNOTEL-based annual ΔSSI per decade (circles, 1984–2018) and CanSWE-based annual ΔSWE for 1 April per decade (diamonds, 1928–2020). The Canadian border is represented with a horizontal black line. Panel d shows the areas where changes in SNOTEL-derived SSI and CanSWE 1 April SWE were significant (p < 0.05), representing 17.8% (n = 97) of SNOTEL stations and 18.7% (n = 37) of CanSWE stations. Subpanels in b show sine curves fit to long-term, daily average precipitation (solid line) and surface water inputs (SWI, dashed line) for the first and second half of the record (blue: 1950–1981 and red: 1982–2013) in the (i) Cascades and (ii) Canadian/Northern Rockies.
