Statistical modeling of monthly and seasonal Michigan snowfall based on machine learning: A multiscale approach

Snow is an important component of Earth’s climate system and snowfall intensity and variation often significantly impact society, the environment, and ecosystems. Understanding monthly and seasonal snowfall intensity and variations is challenging because of multiple controlling mechanisms at different spatial and temporal scales. Using a 65-year of in-situ snowfall observation, we evaluated seven machine learning algorithms for modeling monthly and seasonal snowfall in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (LPM) based on selected environmental and climatic variables. Our results show that the Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) has the best fitting (R2 = 0.88) and out-of-sample estimation skills (R2 = 0.58) for the monthly mean snowfall followed by the Random Forest model. The BART also demonstrates strong estimation skills for large monthly snowfall amounts. Both BART and the Random Forest models suggest that topography, local/regional environmental factors, and teleconnection indices can significantly improve the estimation of monthly and seasonal snowfall amounts in the LPM. These statistical models based on machine learning algorithms can incorporate variables at multiple scales and address nonlinear responses of snowfall variations to environmental/climatic changes. It demonstrated that the multiscale machine learning techniques provide a reliable and computationally efficient approach to modeling snowfall intensity and variability.