Afforestation affects rain-on-snow climatology over Norway

Abstract

Rain-on-snow (ROS) events are most commonly found in sub-polar and alpine climates where they pose a considerable threat to society and nature. While the relationship between ROS frequency and large-scale climate features have been identified, little is known about the role of localised factors, such as land cover, in ROS frequency. Importantly, the impact of future land cover changes, such as afforestation, on ROS frequency is also unknown. In this study, we use gridded observational products and kilometer-scale regional climate simulations to investigate the comparative roles of forests and open spaces in ROS frequency, and to identify the impact of afforestation on ROS frequency. The seNorge gridded observational products generally show that evergreen forests have a higher ROS frequency than open spaces despite the large discrepancies in land cover between different datasets. The observed behaviour was well simulated by a regional climate model, albeit with a more pronounced difference between ROS frequency in forests and open spaces. Model-based results show that future changes in ROS frequency are larger in evergreen forests than in open spaces, and afforestation will increase the frequency of ROS events. Our results demonstrate the relationship between land cover and ROS frequency, and highlight the need to include unique features of the local climate system, such as ROS events, in studies on climate and land use land cover change. Importantly, our study shows that afforestation policies in sub-polar and alpine regions should carefully consider the impacts of such policies on ROS frequency and the downstream consequences for society and nature.