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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,654 posts)
Wed Aug 21, 2019, 02:18 PM Aug 2019

U of I-led study: Back-to-back low snow years will become more common

U of I-led study: Back-to-back low snow years will become more common
POST REGISTER 19 hrs ago



A chairlift is pictured in Sun Valley. A new report, led by University of Idaho researchers, says that recreational activities, such as ski resort operations, will likely be affected by an increasing frequency of consecutive low snow years over the latter half of this century.

Longer fire seasons and poor snow conditions at ski resorts — those kinds of ecological and economic challenges could become far more common as the result of consecutive low snow years in the next 80 years. ... A University of Idaho-led study published earlier this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters included those conclusions.

“Across the West, we’re generally losing a lot of our snowpack — in many places, low snow conditions will be increasingly consistent from year to year,” Adrienne Marshall, the study’s lead author, said in a university news release. “Every time we have a snow drought, we’re delving into our water resources and the ecosystem’s resources. We’re drawing down on our savings without restocking the bank.”

Marshall is a postdoctoral researcher in U of I’s College of Natural Resources. U of I climatologist John Abatzoglou and hydrologist Timothy Link, along with University of California Berkeley’s Christopher Tennant, co-authored the paper.

Prior research shows warming temperatures linked to climate change will generally reduce snowpack and lead to earlier snowmelt in the West, but the year-to-year variability of snowpack had not been well established, the release said. Back-to-back low snow years could become six times more common across the West over the latter half of this century, the study found.
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