Snow Cover and Climate Change in the Cairngorms National Park: Summary Assessment

This document contains a summary assessment of snow cover and climate change in the Cairngorms National Park. Modelling snow cover based on climate projections is challenging, but comparing historic temperature and precipitation data with observed snow cover days helps identify how temperature affects snow days, and model future trends. Initial results indicate a reduction in snow cover as warming continues, with the overall decline projected to accelerate, which has implications for the park's ecology and biodiversity. The projections come with caveats due to incomplete historical data and reliance on high emissions scenarios, though the findings are in line with the UK Meteorological Office and Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) results.