European Snow Booklet – an Inventory of Snow Measurements in Europe

The European Snow Booklet (ESB) is a book of reference for snow measurements that has been produced through collaboration with many European snow practitioners and snow scientists in the framework of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ES1404 “A European network for a harmonised monitoring of snow for the benefit of climate change scenarios, hydrology and numerical weather prediction (HarmoSnow)”. The ESB provides a unique collection of information about operational snow observations in the European countries and the methods used to perform basic measurements of snow on the ground: snow depth (HS), depth of snowfall (HN), water equivalent of the snow cover (SWE) and presence of snow on the ground (PSG). Information and station metadata (for example location, elevation) for these basic snow variables were collected through a comprehensive survey, the ESB questionnaire between August 2017 and March 2018. Numerous institutions of 38 European countries provided detailed information describing the status of the operational snow observations and the methods used at the time of the survey. Based on the information provided, a country report was written for each European country. Similarities and differences among the countries, that is, the choice of snow variables to be measured, the measurement principles applied, the number of stations, or the spatial and elevational station distribution are pointed out. Thus the collection of country reports demonstrates the relevance of snow measurements for each country. Thus, the intention of the ESB is to foster better knowledge transfer regarding snow measurements between the snow science and operational communities and to improve the communication of information to the general public.

For detailed information on the European countries, we refer to the ESB, which can be downloaded here (envidat.ch). Please note that the ESB is not a living document and information and station metadata are from August 2017 till March 2018, except for Latvia (metadata updated in December 2018).