Snow climatological analysis and assessments of the extreme events in western Italian Alps

In this study we will present the results of an activity of the strategic project STRADA (STRategies of ADAptation to climate change) in the frame of the interreg Italy-Switzerland 2007- 2013. This is the analysis of snow depth variations in the western Italian Alps during the period 1930- 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 availability of daily series also allowed the application of advanced statistical techniques based on the Generalized Distribution of Extreme Events to assess the return period. Moreover, in the last period (2001- 2010) the study has been enhanced by data provided by 46 automatic nivo-meterological stations of ARPA Piemonte in order to obtain more detailed informations on climatic features in the western Italian Alps. In fact, automatic stations provide data from a larger altitude range (under 700 m asl and over 2500 m asl) and allow to obtain data in unreachable areas during the winter season.