Snow precipitation amount and its sensitivity to global warming during winter season in japan

The discriminating temperature, which is applied to determine the precipitation type (snowfall or rainfall), was obtained from climatic data. By the values of the discriminating temperature and digital maps of daily temperature. the precipitation types were judged daily for the whole digital map of daily precipitation. Then snowfall and rainfall were simulated according to seven scenarios to estimate the effect of global warming during winter season (November-April) in Japan. As a result, mass of snowfall in Japan was estimated at about 131.9 billion tons for the current climatic condition (Scenario No.1). and at about 54.9 billion tons for the minimum case (Scenario No.7). It may be difficult to use snow as water resources after global warming, especially in the regions which even now have low snowfall. Thus, it is necessary to estimate the effects of global warming on the water balance of watersheds in near future