High-resolution historical climate simulations over Alaska

However, the sparse observational network in Alaska limits our understanding of meteorological variability, particularly of precipitation processes that influence the hydrologic cycle. Here, a new 14-yr (September 2002-August 2016) dataset for Alaska with 4-km grid spacing is described and evaluated.

The dataset, generated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, is useful for gaining insight into meteorological and hydrologic processes, and provides a baseline against which to measure future environmental change. The WRF fields are evaluated at annual, seasonal, and daily time scales against observation-based gridded and station records of 2-m air temperature, precipitation, and snowfall. Pattern correlations between annual mean WRF and observation-based gridded fields are r = 0.89 for 2-m temperature, r = 0.75 for precipitation, r = 0.82 for snow-day fraction, r = 0.55 for first snow day of the season, and r = 0.71 for last snow day of the season.