Interannual oscillations and trend of snow occurrence in the Andes region since 1885

Using documentary sources, a series of the annual number of snow days in th e Mendoza area of Argentina has been constructed. Analysis of the series us ing Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) and the Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) s howed that the number of snow days exhibits interdecadal and interannual os cillations with periods of about 28 and five years. Furthermore a positive trend was detected. This temporal pattern is consistent with studies of the variability of global surface temperature, indicating a strong relationshi p between temperature and snow occurrence in the climate system and the pot ential for using snow occurrence as an indicator of climate change.