Climate Change Is Driving a Sharp Drop in Snow Levels, Study Finds

Changing snow patterns have far-reaching consequences, from water shortages to shuttered ski resorts. A new study confirms that human-caused climate change has affected snow patterns across the Northern Hemisphere, including clear declines of snowpack in at least 31 individual river basins. Whats more, the researchers found that when a region warms to an average temperature of 17 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 8 degrees Celsius, over the whole winter, it appears to reach a tipping point that snow starts to melt away quickly. Beyond that threshold, we kind of see everybody go off a cliff, said Justin Mankin, a professor of geography at Dartmouth College and co-author of the study, which was . Declines in snowpack, the total mass of snow on the ground, have serious implications for places that depend on spring snow melt as a water source. dumped a lot of snow, but the snow now on the ground may not last through winter. In the short term, climate change can create deeper snow from blizzards because of increased precipitation, but, with warmer temperatures, this snow is likely going to melt faster and may not stick around as snowpack. The researchers studied data from more than 160 river basins to review how much snow was left in March each year from 1981 to 2020. In about 20 percent of these areas, they found clear declines of snowpack that could be attributed to human-caused climate change. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and your Times account, or for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? . Want all of The Times? .