Climate drivers of large magnitude snow avalanche years in the U.S. northern Rocky Mountains.

ABSTRACT: Large magnitude snow avalanches pose a hazard to humans and infrastructure worldwide. Analyzing the spatiotemporal behavior of avalanches and the contributory climate factors is important for understanding historical variability in climate-avalanche relationships as well as improving avalanche forecasting. We used established dendrochronological methods to develop a long-term (1867-2019) regional avalanche chronology for the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana using tree-rings from 647 trees exhibiting 2134 avalanche-related growth disturbances. We then used principal component analysis and a generalized linear autoregressive moving average model to examine avalanche-climate relationships. Historically, large magnitude regional avalanche years were characterized by stormy winters with pos

SUBMITTER: Peitzsch EH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8113570 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature