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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Snowpack decline threatens water supplies
  • Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:52:50 -0600


Snowpack decline threatens water supplies
Published: June 9, 2011 at 6:13 PM
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/06/09/Snowpack-decline-threatens-water-supplies/UPI-25251307657633/#ixzz1Osgbmg6o

WASHINGTON, June 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests snowpack declines in the
Rocky Mountains measured over the last 30 years are unusual compared with
data going back the past few centuries.

A study by the U.S. Geological Survey says the decline can be linked to
unusual springtime warming and changes in rainfall patterns.

The warming and snowpack decline are projected to worsen through the 21st
century, threatening to put a strain on water supplies.

Runoff from winter snowpack accounts for 60 percent to 80 percent of the
annual water supply for more than 70 million people living in the western
United States, a USGS release said Thursday.

"This scientific work is critical to understanding how climate change is
affecting western water supplies," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
said. "It helps land managers adapt to changing conditions on the ground,
assists water managers with planning for the future, and gives all of us a
better understanding of the real impacts that carbon pollution is having on
our resources and our way of life."

Since the 1980s there have been declines in snowpack along the entire length
of the Rocky Mountains with unusually severe declines in the north, the study
found.

"Over most of the 20th century, and especially since the 1980s, the northern
Rockies have borne the brunt of the snowpack losses," said USGS scientist
Gregory Pederson, the lead author of the study.

"Most of the land and snow in the northern Rockies sits at lower and warmer
elevations than the southern Rockies, making the snowpack more sensitive to
seemingly small increases in temperature," he said.





  • [Livingontheland] Snowpack decline threatens water supplies, Tradingpost, 06/10/2011

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