30-year (1980-2010) time-series have been extracted from a global gridded surface meteorology dataset (Global Soil Wetness Project Phase 3) for the grid cells containing the Earth System Model - Snow Model Intercomparison Project (ESM-SnowMIP) reference sites, interpolated to one-hour timesteps and bias corrected. Although applied to all sites. The bias corrections are particularly important for mountain sites that are hundreds of meters higher than the grid elevations; as a result, uncorrected air temperatures are too high and snowfall amounts are too low in comparison with in situ measurements.

The ten in situ sites are characterised as maritime (Sapporo, Japan), arctic (Sodankylä, Finland), boreal (Old Aspen, Old Jack Pine and Old Black Spruce, Saskatchewan, Canada) and mid-latitude alpine (Col de Porte, France; Reynolds Mountain East, Idaho, USA, Senator Beck and Swamp Angel, Colorado, USA; Weissfluhjoch, Switzerland). The locations of the in situ measurement sites are listed as follows:

CDP (Col de Porte), Latitude: 45.29, Longitude: 5.77, Elevation: 1325.0 m, Location: France;
OAS (Old Aspen), Latitude: 54.05, Longitude: -106.33, Location: Canada;
OBS (Old Black Spruce), Latitude: 54.65, Longitude: -105.20, Location: Canada;
OJP (Old Jack Pine), Latitude: 54.53, Longitude: -105.00, Location: Canada;
RME (Reynolds Mountain East), Latitude: 43.19, Longitude: -116.78, Location: United States;
SAP (Sapporo), Latitude: 43.06, Longitude: 141.33, Elevation: 17.0 m, Location: Japan;
SNB (Senator Beck Basin Study Area (SBBSA)), Latitude: 37.91, Longitude: -107.73, Location: United States;
SOD (Sodankyla), Latitude: 67.42, Longitude: 26.59, Location: Finland;
SWA (Swamp Angel Study Plot (SASP)), Latitude: 37.91, Longitude: -107.71, Elevation: 3371.0 m, Location: United States;
WFJ (Weissfluhjoch), Latitude: 46.83, Longitude: 9.81, Location: Switzerland.