Sentences with phrase «snowpack declines»

«The unusual nature of recent snowpack declines in the NorthAmerican Cordillera,» Science, Vol.

California had the highest number of positive snowpack trends since 1955, but lingering drought during the past decade erased most of those gains and snowpack declines still dominated;

So has Pacific Northwest snowpack declined?

In the Rocky Mountains, spring (February - March) warming since the 1980s has been largely responsible for recent snowpack declines at mid - and low - elevation sites (Pederson et al. 2013b).

«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.»

Projections indicate that if we stay on the current track of rising temperatures, we can expect to see snowpack declines of 73 — 90 percent by late century.

The unusual nature of recent snowpack declines in the North American Cordillera.

The researchers attribute the snowpack decline to warmer temperatures, not a lack of precipitation.

«The Northern Rockies have shown the greatest response to warming in terms of snowpack decline,» said lead author Greg Pederson, a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Rocky Mountain Research Center.

Snowpack decline: Figure 1 at right shows the decline in April 1 winter snowpack in the North Cascades for various time intervals since 1936 at four stations and at six stations since 1946.

In other words, snow starts falling later in the fall and stops falling earlier in the spring, and snowpack declines.

In other words, the elevations at which rain changes to snow in the mountains goes up, and snowpack declines.

«Over the past millennium, late 20th century snowpack reductions are almost unprecedented in magnitude across the northern Rocky Mountains and in their north - south synchrony across the cordillera... the snowpack declines and their synchrony result from unparalleled springtime warming that is due to positive reinforcement of the anthropogenic warming by decadal variability.

The snowpack decline is due to warming rather than a lack of precipitation, the researchers believe.

Both the snowpack declines and their synchrony result from unparalleled springtime warming that is due to positive reinforcement of the anthropogenic warming by decadal variability.

Snowpack decline is projected to continue as more winter precipitation falls as rain rather than snow.