Sentences with phrase «average snowpack»

• The melting of an above - average snowpack across the northern Rocky Mountains, combined with abnormally high precipitation, caused the Missouri and Souris rivers to swell beyond their banks across the upper Midwest.

The average snowpack in the Cascades has declined 50 percent since 1950 and will be cut in half again in 30 years if we don't start addressing the problems of climate change now.

In 2015, far below - average snowpack in California and the Pacific Northwest created exceptionally dry conditions across the West, and the region experienced fires of a size rarely seen.

The Feather River Basin had reached 158 % of average snowpack, with more snow on the way.

However, the average snowpack within a specific elevation band is determined by regional climate variations.

California's average snowpack had reached 186 % of normal for March 1st, well above levels that caused its 1983 floods (DWR 2017b).

Results show that anthropogenic warming reduced average snowpack levels by 25 %, with middle - to - low elevations experiencing reductions between 26 and 43 %

Large interannual variability in snowpack can be nested within Pacific Decadal Oscillation (and Pacific North American) driven patterns (e.g., see the high snow years of 1996 and 1997 that occurred during a 25 - year period of below average snowpack).

In contrast, La Niña episodes typically result in below - average temperatures, above - average precipitation, and above - average snowpack.

Much of the precipitation that fell across the state during the season was rain and not snow, with much below average snowpack at the end of the season.

For example, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was in a negative phase between approximately 1960 - 1980, leading to above average snowpack across the state.

The average snowpack in the Cascades has declined 50 percent since 1950 and will be cut in half again in 30 years if we don't start addressing the problems of climate change now.

Since 1915, the average snowpack in western states has declined by between 15 and 30 percent, the researchers say, and the amount of water lost from that snowpack reduction is comparable in volume to Lake Mead, the West's largest manmade reservoir.

Not exact matches

Mote said snowpack levels in most of the western U.S. for 2017 - 18 thus far are lower than average — a function of continued warming temperatures and the presence of a La Niña event, which typically results in warmer and drier conditions in most southwestern states.

«The snowpack we had this year was below average — around 70 percent of average towards the end of February, followed by one of the driest, warmest Marches on record,» said Tim Mathews, a fire meteorologist with the Rocky Mountain Coordination Center.

The snowpack stood at just 5 percent of its average level.

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.

Levels of snowpack are 12 percent of average for this time of year, down from 20 percent on Jan. 3 (E&EN ews PM, Jan. 3).

Right now, the researchers are able to develop a monthly average for snowpack about 10 days after the end of the month.

While the western snowpack levels have improved over last year's dismally low levels overall, there are still places below average in Colorado, Montana, and New Mexico.

For example, below - average winter precipitation can lead to smaller mountain snowpack volumes, which tend to result in shorter duration spring runoff (Hamlet and Lettenmaier 1999; Stewart et al. 2004; Moore et al. 2007; Whitfield 2013).

Much below average snowfall and snowpack was observed across the West, which exacerbated the drought and wildfire season during summer and autumn.

Fernie Alpine Resort boasts by far the deepest snowpack of any ski area in the Rockies, with an average nine metres of annual snowfall.

In an average year California get 194 maf (million acre feet) of rainfall / snowpack and only about 82 maf is captured within the labyrinth of water systems: of which 8.8 maf goes to cities, 34.3 maf to agriculture and 39.4 maf to the environment.

Well, it nearly * tripled * from mid February to late March, yet never reached above about 65 % of average at any point this season (and recent record warmth has already triggered melting; the snowpack is already back down to 55 % of average for the date).

According to official records, California's snowpack is the lowest on record for this time of year at around a mere 20 % of the average since records began.

(Assuming there's even snow to melt: Earlier this year, after «an historically dry December,» the snow - water equivalent (SWE) of the northern Sierra Nevada snowpack was at just 27 percent of its multi-decade average.)

As the climate of the Pacific Northwest warms, more winter precipitation is falling as rain, compared with historical averages.2 With declining snowpack in Oregon's Cascade Mountains, peak stream flows are occurring earlier, and summer flows are declining.2 These changes are expected to continue as heat - trapping emissions grow, putting more stress on already endangered salmon that return to the Columbia and other rivers in the region to spawn.2

In the Cascades, where cool - season temperatures have risen 2.5 ° F (about 1.4 ° C) over the past 40 to 70 years, snowpack has declined by an average of 25 percent — and up to 60 percent in some areas.3, 4,5

On the other hand, though, it's a bit discouraging that one of the strongest El Nino events in recorded history brought about a snowpack which, while much improved over recent extremely low snow years, was still below average.

The study found that, on average, temperatures during winter and spring had increased during the study period and the amount of the snow - water equivalent (or the water in the snowpack) decreased by 25 percent.

[4] Thanks to a strong El Niño that brought near average precipitation to the northern California, the statewide April 1 snowpack measurement in 2016 showed state water resources at 87 percent of the long - term average; however, the snowpack was not sufficient to undo water deficits caused by years of drought.

These include increased average land and ocean temperatures that lead to reduced snowpack levels, hydrological changes, and sea level rise; changing precipitation patterns that will create both drought and extreme rain events; and increasing atmospheric CO2 that will contribute to ocean acidification, changes in species composition, and increased risk of fires.

That envelope is not just a matter of global - average surface temperature (to which the misleadingly innocuous term «global warming» applies) but of averages and extremes of hot and cold, wet and dry, snowpack and snowmelt, wind and storm tracks, and ocean currents and upwellings; and not just the magnitude and geographic distribution of all of these, but also the timing.

LUKAS: It's unlikely that we'll get back up to average over the next three to four months and end up with a peak snowpack that's near normal.

Precipitation so far this season has been somewhat below average across the more populated coastal parts of the state, although very early Sierra Nevada snowpack numbers are actually looking pretty good at the moment.

Large grains grow at the expense of small grains, so the average grain radius increases with snowpack age.

In 2015, average minimum winter temperatures were above freezing for the first time, and the snowpack was the lowest ever recorded.

December and January storms have helped, with precipitation and snowpack mostly a little above average for this time of year.