Variability and trends of selected snow cover characteristics in the Tatra Mountains region in Slovakia 1981–2020

Over the last decades, snow seasons in Europe were reported to become shorter with lower abundance of snow. However, at some stations situated above certain elevation, the amount of snow cover was found to be increasing. This is also the case of high mountains in Slovakia, where number of snow-related studies showed some differences related to the elevation. In this study we report on the trends of selected snow cover characteristics such as the number of days with snow cover (DSC) for 1, 10 and 20 cm depths, summed snow depths (SSD) and mean snow depths (MSD). The data used in this study were collected by the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMI) at eight stations in the Tatra Mountains region during the 39 seasons 1981–2020 (01/07 to 30/06 the following year). Some increasing trends were observed for stations above 1100 m while stations below this elevation had generally decreasing estimates. The DSC for 1 cm ranged from 297 days at station elevated at 2635 m a.s.l. to 25 days for station at 640 m a.s.l. The MSD ranged from 100 to 7 cm on average for the whole period. Apart from global warming, other factors play role, and these can be complex in the mountainous regions making any trends more ambiguous to interpret.