A numerical atmospheric boundary layer model, based on higher-order turbulence closure assumptions, is developed and used to simulate the local advection of momentum, heat, and moisture during the melt of patchy snow covers over a 10-km horizontal domain. The coupled model includes solution of the mass continuity equation, the horizontal and vertical momentum equations, an E−ϵ turbulence model, an energy equation, and a water vapor conservation equation. Atmospheric buoyancy is accounted for, and a land surface energy balance model is implemented at the lower boundary. Model integrations indicate that advective processes occurring at local scales produce nonlinear horizontal variations in surface fluxes. Under conditions of the numerical experiments, the energy available to melt snow-covered regions has been found to increase by as much as 30% as the area of exposed vegetation increases upwind of the snow cover. The melt increase is found to vary in a largely linear fashion with decreasing snow-c... Abstract A numerical atmospheric boundary layer model, based on higher-order turbulence closure assumptions, is developed and used to simulate the local advection of momentum, heat, and moisture during the melt of patchy snow covers over a 10-km horizontal domain. The coupled model includes solution of the mass continuity equation, the horizontal and vertical momentum equations, an E−ϵ turbulence model, an energy equation, and a water vapor conservation equation. Atmospheric buoyancy is accounted for, and a land surface energy balance model is implemented at the lower boundary. Model integrations indicate that advective processes occurring at local scales produce nonlinear horizontal variations in surface fluxes. Under conditions of the numerical experiments, the energy available to melt snow-covered regions has been found to increase by as much as 30% as the area of exposed vegetation increases upwind of the snow cover. The melt increase is found to vary in a largely linear fashion with decreasing snow-c...