Tuesday, 13 January 2004: 3:30 PM
Variability and trends in mountain snowpack in western north America
Room 608
Poster PDF
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Water is a valuable commodity in the arid West, where mountain snowpack
provides much of the storage of water for summer use. A recent study
examined snow water equivalent (SWE) at mountain sites in the Pacific
Northwest and noted sharp declines in April 1 SWE since 1950, and
suggested on the basis of regression analysis and elevational dependence
of trends that rising temperatures were primarily responsible. The
present study extends that work to the entire mountainous west, and
further examines the competing influences of temperature and precipitation
trends. Total accumulation is largely determined by winter precipitation,
while the rate and timing of spring melt is largely determined by late
winter and early spring temperature. Declines in snowpack are most acute
where late-winter temperatures are near freezing and winter precipitation
has been decreasing, for instance in the Oregon Cascades.
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