How Snow and Its Physical Properties Change in a Changing Climate Alpine Context?

In this study we will present the preliminary results of an activity of the Italian MIUR Project NextData, research project NextSnow (national coordinator V. Levizzani). This is the analysis of snow depth and snowfalls data in the western Italian Alps during the period 1961-2010. These series were available until now, only on paper: we performed the recovery and digitization of daily data. We carried out the historical research and data quality control which allowed a complete climate analysis, with the identification of trends and their statistical significance. The increase of maximum and minimum temperatures are considered as a consequence of significant snow depth reduction. Moreover, in the last period (2001-2010) the study has been enhanced by data provided by 46 automatic snow-gauge stations of ARPA Piemonte in order to obtain more detailed information on climatic features from a larger altitude range.