Monthly snowfall data in winter (December to February) from 55 weather stations in the Tibetan Plateau from 1971 through 2011 were analyzed to reveal the variation characteristics of the winter snowfall over the plateau. The distribution of the winter snowfall over the Tibetan Plateau is characterized by more in the east and south and less in the northwest and the middle Brahmaputra. The distribution of the relative variability and the distribution of snowfall are almost on opposite,with large relative variability. Bounded by 30° N,the plateau snowfall has opposite tendency between the north and the south. That is,snowfall increases in north and decreases in south. Based on the snowfall partition through applying rotated empirical orthogonal function,combined with correlation analysis,the evolution characteristics and long-term climate trend of the plateau snowfall during the last 40 years were analyzed. The following conclusions can be drawn: Snowfall distribution clearly reflects the geographical features and climatic characteristics of the Tibetan Plateau. That is,more snowfall in southern windward and the interchange zone of warm air and cold air,less snowfall in the leeward and north. During the last 40 years,the snowfall has shown from less to more,and then to less. It was significantly abundant from 1980 through 1990. An abrupt change from less snowfall to more had taken place in the mid-1970s. Mutation phenomena with snowfall reduction occurred respectively in 2007 and 1988 in two southern parts. Snowfall has significant periodic variations,a quasi-decadal variation (14 years) and a quasi-eight-year variation.