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Related: About this forumNew study says climate change behind drop in Northern Hemisphere snowpack
New study says climate change behind drop in Northern Hemisphere snowpack
The snow-covered summit of Mount Aeneas is visible above a ribbon of low clouds on Wednesday, Dec. 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
By BLAIR MILLER Daily Montanan
| February 2, 2024 12:00 AM
New scientific research published earlier this month shows that human-caused climate change is putting the most densely populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere, including the American West, at risk of losing vast portions of their water supply because of decreasing snowpack.
Published in the journal Nature on Jan. 10, the report led by two Dartmouth College researchers found climate change-driven snowpack trends in half of the 169 river basins in the Northern Hemisphere, 31 of which they said they could confidently attribute to human influence.
Together, our findings portend serious water-availability challenges in basins where snowmelt runoff constitutes a major component of the water supply portfolio, the researchers wrote in their conclusion. Improving our understanding of where and how climate change has and will affect snow water resources is vital to informing the difficult water resource management decisions that a less snowy future will require.
The researchers built a model that analyzed observations and models of snowpack, temperature, precipitation, and runoff data from 1981 through 2020, then used the uncertainties from the models and observations to try to cut through temperature and precipitation variations and account for regional differences to see how a warmer planet would affect snowpack and runoff in the future.
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The snow-covered summit of Mount Aeneas is visible above a ribbon of low clouds on Wednesday, Dec. 13. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
By BLAIR MILLER Daily Montanan
| February 2, 2024 12:00 AM
New scientific research published earlier this month shows that human-caused climate change is putting the most densely populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere, including the American West, at risk of losing vast portions of their water supply because of decreasing snowpack.
Published in the journal Nature on Jan. 10, the report led by two Dartmouth College researchers found climate change-driven snowpack trends in half of the 169 river basins in the Northern Hemisphere, 31 of which they said they could confidently attribute to human influence.
Together, our findings portend serious water-availability challenges in basins where snowmelt runoff constitutes a major component of the water supply portfolio, the researchers wrote in their conclusion. Improving our understanding of where and how climate change has and will affect snow water resources is vital to informing the difficult water resource management decisions that a less snowy future will require.
The researchers built a model that analyzed observations and models of snowpack, temperature, precipitation, and runoff data from 1981 through 2020, then used the uncertainties from the models and observations to try to cut through temperature and precipitation variations and account for regional differences to see how a warmer planet would affect snowpack and runoff in the future.
{snip}
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New study says climate change behind drop in Northern Hemisphere snowpack (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Feb 2024
OP
2naSalit
(93,142 posts)1. Get ready for smoke...
All summer, starting early and lasting long. Montana is probably going to burn down, the whole state, if it doesn't rain a lot all spring and summer. If it snows a lot from now to May, it will be catastrophic flooding during runoff.
msongs
(70,236 posts)2. california sierras expecting up to 6 FEET of snow this weekend with more to come next week nt
applegrove
(123,486 posts)3. There is a movie called "Paddle To The Sea", by
Canada's Nationa Film Board, that follows a indigenous carved wooden man in a canoe from the snow pack to the sea. Really good movie for kids to see. It is the little carving that could. Only 1/2 an hour long.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddle_to_the_Sea