Dynamics of blizzards in Tomsk Region in modern period

Snow storms are assigned to the main specialized indicators of climatic resources for the automobile and railway transport. They affect directly the state of roadways and the visual range on roads reducing essentially the traffic speed of transport facilities. The significant financial resources are expended on the fight with snow drifts. The research material includes data for the 1966-2011 period from twenty three stations of Tomsk Region reported by meteorological monthly bulletins (Issue 20, Part 2). The analysis of the basic characteristics of snow storms has revealed that the decrease in quantitative characteristics of this phenomenon is observed at meteorological stations. Thus, the significant decrease in the average annual number of days with snow storms has been recorded at all stations considered: at station Aleksandrovskoye the decrease amounts up to 1.6 times, at Pudino - up to 4.7 times. The study of the dynamics of changes in the number of days with snow storms during the considered period also reveals the decrease in this characteristic at all stations; the most drastic change is marked from 1984 to 1990. In the last few years a three- to six-fold decrease in the average number of days with snow storms has been recorded. The average snow storm duration on a snow-stormy day varies in the territory from 2.6 hours (Tomsk, Molchanovo) to 5.6 hours (Prokhorkino). The comparison of the average duration in 2000-2011 and 1936-1980 periods shows that the duration of a snow storm in a snow storm day has recently decreased at Aleksandrovskoye station by 2.6 times, Kolpashevo - by 2.7 times, Pudino - by 1.4 times and in Tomsk - by 3.6 times. Reasons for such changes in the snow storm characteristics remain to be investigated.

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