Climate change drives increasing and spatially variable global rain-on-snow events | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Climate change drives increasing and spatially variable global rain-on-snow events Sulitan Danierhan, keke Hu, Gulimire Hanati, Ping Jiao, Wenjun Liu, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6546585/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract As global warming continues to intensify, global rainfall frequency is gradually increasing. When warmer rainfall falls on colder snow, destructive snowmelt floods can occur. However, global-scale rain-on-snow (ROS) events research has not yet been carried out, there is still a lack of understanding of ROS events and characteristics to these events at a global scale. Here, global ROS events from 1950 to 2023 are evaluated using the validated 3-hour, 5-km resolution ERA5-Land dataset. We found that global ROS events occur mainly in the middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and are increasing in frequency and intensity. Changes in ROS events are linked to climate change, with global warming increasing ROS occurrence. In addition, ROS events are related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which promotes the occurrence of interannual ROS events at different elevation ranges. In the future, the mid-high latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere will still be the areas with the highest conditional probability of ROS events occurring. These results can help to understand and predict changes in the frequency and intensity of global snowmelt floods in the context of ongoing climate change. Earth and environmental sciences/Hydrology Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Hydrology Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change impacts Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Supplementaryinformation.docx Supplementary information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6546585","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":461910853,"identity":"636c2f06-ac56-44fd-a2f5-2b6aaf7ae709","order_by":0,"name":"Sulitan Danierhan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFAC5oYDQFIOzJZsIEoLY8MBoB5j0rQwALUkNkDZhIH8jMTGwx9q7qSv7T/AJmG5g0Gev4H52QN8WgxuJAIdduxZ7rYbCcwGkmcYDGccYDM3wKtFAqSF7TBQCwPjA8k2BsYNDDxsEgQcBtTy73C62fkDDAeAWuwJamEAOexg2+EEswMJYFsSCWoxOPOw4cDZvsOG224kNgP9IpE84zCbGX6HtScf/lDx7bC82fnDx6Qld9jY9rc3P8PvMARgbGCWYAAqZiZSPUTTB1JUj4JRMApGwYgBAGqjTwrG5/QSAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sulitan","middleName":"","lastName":"Danierhan","suffix":""},{"id":461910854,"identity":"8a6284ae-1da0-4b5e-a6e7-073788ebc8e1","order_by":1,"name":"keke Hu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"keke","middleName":"","lastName":"Hu","suffix":""},{"id":461910855,"identity":"1af1ccdc-59d2-410c-aff4-c96f3ca43b38","order_by":2,"name":"Gulimire Hanati","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Gulimire","middleName":"","lastName":"Hanati","suffix":""},{"id":461910856,"identity":"2a7765c5-2063-4ba2-8892-e8f9bfe5ed4b","order_by":3,"name":"Ping Jiao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ping","middleName":"","lastName":"Jiao","suffix":""},{"id":461910857,"identity":"1e3a2de3-bbd8-43e7-82d5-2b77567562b4","order_by":4,"name":"Wenjun Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wenjun","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":461910858,"identity":"7532c81f-b439-4b14-95ae-30ce0d1f37c8","order_by":5,"name":"Lei Jin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lei","middleName":"","lastName":"Jin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-28 10:05:39","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6546585/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6546585/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":96245279,"identity":"aaf2e4bb-c98e-4098-b065-85c1799a61ec","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-19 07:20:15","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2416907,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6546585/v1_covered_43091fd4-f1bb-46da-8cdf-ce5ae597a4a2.pdf"},{"id":83530467,"identity":"72f62a96-9a13-4096-aadb-85dd4113c52a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-28 04:43:40","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":24003263,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary information","description":"","filename":"Supplementaryinformation.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6546585/v1/9fa157d852c97baafb3b74b7.docx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Climate change drives increasing and spatially variable global rain-on-snow events","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"
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