An evaluation of snow initializations in NCEP global and regional forecasting models

First, a new method is developed to upscale point measurements into gridded datasets that is superior to other tested methods. It is then utilized to generate daily SD and SWE datasets for water years 2012-14 using measurements from two networks (COOP and SNOTEL) in the United States.

These datasets are used to evaluate daily SD and SWE initializations in NCEP global forecasting models (GFS and CFSv2, both on 0.5 degrees x 0.5 degrees grids) and regional models (NAM on 12 km x 12 km grids and RAP on 13 km x 13 km grids) across eight 2 degrees x 2 degrees boxes. Initialized SD from three models (GFS, CFSv2, and NAM) that utilize Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) SD data for initialization is 77% below the area-averaged values, on average.