CoCoRaHS WxTalk Webinar #72: (AWSSI) - Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index

Presenter Barb Boustead, NOAA/NWS's Warning Decision Training Division, Normal, OK.
This webinar will look at the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI). AWSSI provides a scientific way to quantify the severity of a winter at any given location compared to its weather history. Using daily temperature, snowfall, and snow depth measurements, the AWSSI assigns a point total to each day of winter. Daily points add up through the winter season, giving a whole-season total at the end of winter. Besides the curiosity factor of having the numbers to support perceptions of whether a winter was severe or mild, AWSSI can be used to compare severity among sites or to compare the severity of one winter to others at a given site. The index can provide insight into wildlife and vegetation patterns, transportation and education impacts, and relationships between winter severity and other weather and climate patterns.