Representativeness of arctic weather station data for the computation of snowmelt in a small area

This study determines how representative the snowmelt values computed using arctic weather station data are of the melt in its surrounding area. Simultaneous measurements of meteorological variables were made at several sites to permit comparisons of their calculated snowmelt with the weather station at Resolute, Northwest Territories, Canada. Like most other stations, the Resolute site is located near the coast, at an airport and close to human settlement, making it warmer and its snow albedo lower than its adjacent sites. Snowmelt rates at Resolute are higher than that of a flat site away from the airport. This latter site has snowmelt conditions more typical of the rolling terrain nearby, but its melt rates are higher than those for an inland site where the snow remains longer than at the coastal zone. Through these simultaneous observations and systematic comparisons, this study indicates that the point data from coastal, arctic stations are unlikely to be representative of their surrounding areas. Thus, caution should be exercised when applying such information directly to the computation of snowmelt for entire grid cells of macro‐hydrologic models. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.