adjective

• Relating to or characteristic of a region of perpetual snow.

  ‘the nival zone, the area above about 2,000 meters’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Rivers of the Mackenzie Basin exhibit several seasonal flow patterns that include the nival (snowmelt dominated), proglacial (influenced by glacier melt), wetland, prolacustrine (below large lakes), and regulated flow regimes.’
  • ‘The nival regime is modified where additional sources of water supply or significant storage mechanisms alter the streamflow pattern.’
  • ‘The prolacustrine regime provides a strong contrast to the nival pattern, in that large lake storage strongly attenuates high flows and maintains steady runoff during the winter.’