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Vanishing Snow Threatens West

Global warming blamed for shrinking snowpacks

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 1, 2008 11:44 AM CST
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(Newser) – Blame for a dramatic decrease in Western mountain snowpacks rests squarely on global warming, researchers said yesterday. Using computer models of 50 years' worth of data, scientists confirmed warming is turning snowfall into rain, melting the packs earlier and drying up more rivers by summer. The trend threatens to trigger a crisis in the West and Southwest, reports the Washington Post.

The water content of the snowpack has decreased annually since 1950 in eight of the nine mountain regions studied, ranging from 10% in the Colorado Rockies to 40% in Oregon's Cascades. Hopes that the trend would be self-correcting have been dashed, said a researcher: "We have found very clearly that global warming" is responsible for the disappearing snowpack and "things will be getting worse."  

Department of Water Resources hydrologist Frank Gehrke, left, reads the depth of the snowpack to colleague Dave Hart, right, during the snow survey held near Echo Summit, Calif., Wednesday, March 28, 2007. The water content in the Sierra snowpack along the 400-mile-long range averaged 46 percent of normal, the lowest...
Department of Water Resources hydrologist Frank Gehrke, left, reads the depth of the snowpack to colleague Dave Hart, right, during the snow survey held near Echo Summit, Calif., Wednesday, March 28,...   (Associated Press)
The decline of the snowpack in the western states is caused entirely by global warming and has already begun to impact water supplies, according to a new study.
The decline of the snowpack in the western states is caused entirely by global warming and has already begun to impact water supplies, according to a new study.   (KRT Photos)
Travis White of Crested Butte, Colo. shovels snow from a second story deck at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. A new study says the decline of the snowpack in the west is due to global warming. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)
Travis White of Crested Butte, Colo. shovels snow from a second story deck at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. A new study says the decline of the snowpack in the west is due to global warming. (AP Photo/Nathan...   (Associated Press)
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climate change • global warming • Colorado Rockies • snow pack • western United States • Scripps Institution of Oceanography • University of California at San Diego • Oregon Cascades • Sierra Nevada • National Institute for Environmental Studies

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