Sentences with phrase «snowpack declines at»

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).

Not exact matches

A new study of long - term snow monitoring sites in the western United States found declines in snowpack at more than 90 percent of those sites — and one - third of the declines were deemed significant.

This time, no return to cooler period Tim Barnett, a climatologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said the new results appear to agree with his earlier work that used climate models to show humans» greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to declining snowpack in the western United States.

«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.

Singer suggested a regional decline in snowpacks and less groundwater recharge at the mountain fronts has negatively affected water resources.

The observed melting is greatest at lower elevations, a trend matched in snowpack declines across the Western U.S.

A new study of long - term snow monitoring sites in the western United States found declines in snowpack at more than 90 percent of those sites - and one - third of the declines were deemed significant.

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.

If treatments at this scale are completed and repeated over the next several decades, increases in runoff could help offset the current and projected declines in snowpack and stream flow due to warming while improving the resilience of forest stands.

The magnitude of observed declines in snowpack in the Southwest, in the range of 20 %, is similar to the increases in runoff associated with thinning from this study, suggesting that accelerated thinning may at least offset or ameliorate runoff losses due to climate change.

In the winter despite a small increase in precipitation, retained snowpack at the end of the winter has declined.

Those who do come to the Northwest will be faced with an unpleasant reality, she adds, reciting a list of problems expected to strike the region before the turn of the century: regional temperature increases between 5.5 and 9.1 degrees Fahrenheit; drier summers making the Northwest's forests more susceptible to fire; declining snowpack, as more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow at higher elevations, straining regional water supplies and increasing the risk of flooding downstream.