Sentences with phrase «as snowpack»

As the snowpack diminishes from climate change, we'll need rainwater catchment, reforested watersheds, and efficient irrigation systems.

The majority of winter precipitation in Montana falls as snow, and the precipitation that accumulates as snowpack in the mountains is the most significant source of water to valley bottoms throughout the summer.

It is also likely to affect the ability to control floods, as snowpack that melts earlier in the year increases downhill runoff.

«When snow first falls, snow grains are quite small, and as snowpack ages, and particularly for warmer snowpack, you get consolidation of those grains into larger clumps,» said Sarah Doherty, a researcher at the University of Washington who co-authored the paper.

Sampling 7,000 - year - old ice cores as well as snowpack dating from 1969 through the mid-1990s, Barbante's team found that concentrations of the metals had risen almost sevenfold since the mid-1970s, when catalytic converters first came into widespread use.

Water shortages could also be serious problems in Peru (as Andean glaciers disappear) and California (as snowpacks shrink.)

Not exact matches

Indeed, thanks to a snowy winter and cool spring, the snowpack covering the entire Pacific Northwest — the vast majority of which is over 1,000 metres elevation and still snowbound — is creating a glut of zero - emission energy as that huge annual reservoir melts and powers hydroelectric turbines.

The primary driver of the record low snowpacks was the warm winter, especially in California, but in Oregon and Washington as well.»

As windblown crystals hit the snowpack, particles with opposite charges are attracted to each other and stick together to form a cornice.

According to stream gages, as much as 58 percent of the water in the Gunnison River — a prominent Colorado River tributary — comes not from snowpack on the peaks above but from groundwater.

They compared fluctuations in reservoir water levels between 2003 and 2016 to a variety of factors, such as precipitation, the severity of the drought, the snowpack levels in the Sierras, and levels of other California reservoirs.

Additionally, as the state's snowpack melts earlier because of warming, Cayan said, there is more runoff from higher elevation, which increases flooding.

The findings could serve as a warning sign that engineers need to design stronger structures, especially as glide avalanches may become more frequent: Warmer winters in the future may cause snowpacks to become, on average, wetter and denser than those seen in winters of recent decades.

«Increased runoff caused by dust on snowpack acts as a major leak in the reservoir system,» says Thomas Painter, a professor of geography at the University of Utah.

Five times as much dust now falls on the snowpack in the Colorado Rockies as when the area was first heavily settled in the mid-19th century.

But after dry winters with low snowpack, lake levels drop and toad eggs can find themselves in as little as 10 cm of water.

«As we reach a tipping point and see our customary water storage system, the snowpack, melting more and earlier in the winter, systems that rely on snowmelt will need to be reevaluated and modified.»

As for the snowpack, the models show it decreasing by at least 30 percent.

According to the first report under the SECURE Water Act, «As the effects of climate change and snowpack are realized throughout the Colorado River Basin, these effects will drive changes in the availability of natural water supplies.»

Increasing water supply Water managers are looking to replace the projected losses of snowpacks, which serve as natural reservoirs, with new and expanded ways of storing water.

«But the snow is darkened by other things as well, like organics, and also by dust and soil that can get in the snowpack.»

In western states where snowpack is critical, we found decreases in the percent of winter precipitation falling as snow at elevations between sea level and 5,000 feet.

Water managers are looking to replace the projected losses of snowpacks, which serve as natural reservoirs, with new and expanded ways of storing water.

It needs to be clarified here, that it is hypothetically possible to get more snowfall and snowpack in a globally warming world (at least for a while), due to increased precipitation (which is predicted in a warming world, esp for the higher latitudes) coming down as snow.

Past strong El Niño events, such as in 1982 - 1983 and 1997 - 1998, have seen robust snowpacks, Swain said, but they may not be the case with any event now or in the future.

The snow readings are important during this time of the year, as several locations depend on the meltwater from that snowpack for drinking water and irrigation through the drier and hotter summer months.

That ridge has blocked water - laden winter storms, sending them spiraling northward instead of into the Golden State, reducing snowpacks that Californians use as they melt to satiate their thirsts, lawns and industrial operations.

It shows snowpack data from a network of monitoring sites called SNOTEL, as measured in snow water equivalent.

Warming temperatures in the region are a major concern for water resources, as eastern Washington depends on its winter snowpack to supply reservoirs and streams come the warmer summer months.

It also serves as a long - term measurement, as in a warming world, the spring snowpack will melt more quickly as summer nears.

For this reason, most cities stick with traditional sources of freshwater, such as underground aquifers, rivers, lakes, and runoff from snowpack.

Snowpack accumulated at high elevations tends to be more stable and persist longer than at low elevations, largely as a result of colder temperatures at high elevations.

The assessments in this chapter are based on the climate trends for which we had sufficient data and climate projections that represent plausible future scenarios, as described in the Climate chapter of this assessment (see Water chapter for snowpack trends and projections) and summarized in Table 4 - 1.

That threat is a concern with this year's low snowpack, as less snow leads to a drier landscape, Brettschneider said.

The snow readings are important during this time of the year, as several locations depend on the meltwater from that snowpack for drinking

NASA airborne science instruments such as the JPL - managed Airborne Snow Observatory and the SnowEx field campaign in the western United States, which includes JPL participation, seek to better understand and better measure how much water is held in snow cover, a critical fact for this region where one in six people rely on snowpack for water.

As such, it is a good time to take inventory of the snowpack in the mountains.

Peter Gleick, a climate expert at the Pacific Institute, warned that seven days of sustained warmth could melt as much as 30 percent of California's snowpack.

No snowpack, no hay: In the northern Nevada, cattle feed is getting hard to come by, as sources of water diminish in supply.

Dewclaws provide certain breeds, such as the basenji and Catahoula leopard dog, gripping power for climbing trees, while dewclaws give the Great Pyrenees balance on rugged mountain terrain while herding sheep, and create a snowshoe effect in deep snowpack.

Most of the West's surface water comes from snowpack, which is declining as more precipitation falls as rain and snowpack melts earlier, leaving less water available for summer when it is needed most.

Losses of glacial ice and permanent snowpack as well as thawing permafrost are widespread and complex; they affect key aspects of alpine lakes and streams that include temperature, water discharge, and nutrient supply.

Experts point to high temperatures, drying rivers, and melting snowpack as some of the factors behind the dry spells.

Phenomena such as a diminished regional snowpack, which robbed the environment of moisture that would ordinarily have cooled the air and quenched plants and animals as it melted amid the shortage of rain.

Snowfall varies across the region, comprising less than 10 % of total precipitation in the south, to more than half in the north, with as much as two inches of water available in the snowpack at the beginning of spring melt in the northern reaches of the river basins.81 When this amount of snowmelt is combined with heavy rainfall, the resulting flooding can be widespread and catastrophic (see «Cedar Rapids: A Tale of Vulnerability and Response»).82 Historical observations indicate declines in the frequency of high magnitude snowfall years over much of the Midwest, 83 but an increase in lake effect snowfall.61 These divergent trends and their inverse relationships with air temperatures make overall projections of regional impacts of the associated snowmelt extremely difficult.

While a low snowpack in the mountains is undesirable, the low snowpack in eastern North Dakota does have a bright side as there are no concerns of spring flooding in the Red River Valley at this time.

The winter snowpack in mountainous regions such as the Himalayas, the Rockies, the Sierra, and the Andes is a most efficient reservoir, storing water through the cold months and releasing it gradually as snowmelt in warm months when farmers need it.

A declining ratio indicates that greater percentages of precipitation occur as rain instead of snow and / or that melt of winter snowpack is increasing.

«If snowpack declines, forests become more stressed, which can lead to ecological changes that include alterations in the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species as well as vulnerability to perturbations like fire and beetle kill.»

Sixty percent of annual precipitation falls primarily as snow in the winter and spring months from October to April, and the melting of the resulting snowpack accounts for 80 to 90 % of annual stream flow [29].