Throughout a lot of the American West, mountain snowpack acts as nature’s water towers.
The snow accumulates in winter. Then it melts slowly, feeding lower-elevation streams and rivers in the course of the spring and summer season when rainfall in some areas is scarce.
Hale: “That water from the snowpack actually offers nearly all of downstream water assets … and so there’s actually a reliance on that snowmelt.”
However Kate Hale, a postdoctoral researcher on the College of Alaska Fairbanks, says that because the local weather warms, snowpack and snowmelt are altering.
As temperatures heat, extra precipitation is falling as rain. And the snow that does accumulate typically melts sooner and earlier within the 12 months — which can lead to springtime flooding, adopted by summertime drought.
In current analysis, Hale developed a brand new method of measuring snow water storage.
Hale: “With actually a deal with, when does precipitation — notably snow — when does it fall, and when does it soften, and the way is that altering?”
She says it may possibly assist water managers predict how wintertime situations will have an effect on water provides later within the 12 months and plan for the way to handle restricted water assets in a hotter future.
Reporting credit score: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media