An Examination of Heavy 30-Day Snowfall Events East of the Rocky Mountains from 1900-2016

Winter weather events such as snow and ice storms, and extreme cold air outbreaks produce major damages and large costs across many weather-sensitive sectors. Numerous studies have characterized snowstorms, their regional frequency, magnitude, and related impacts, and others have examined the cumulative role of snowfall and temperature anomalies for a specific month or winter. This study aims to examine a snowfall extreme at a different temporal scale, the greatest 30-day snowfall totals for areas in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains for the period 1900-2016. The initial task of such a study is to identify and map the long-term climate stations (i.e., those with daily snowfall records dating from 1900-2016) and then conduct an evaluation of snowfall records to determine those stations that need to be removed from the study. Once a final set of historic snowfall stations has been determined, the five heaviest independent 30-day snowfall periods (i.e., events) will be identified for each station. This evaluation of snowfall totals for periods greater than a storm and less than a winter would create a new and useful climatology.B.S. (Bachelor of Science