Research Paper On Snowpacks

Snow falls gracefully from the sky, landing atop the beautiful Rocky Mountains. When that snow melts into water, it collects into streams, which run into rivers, and low down into the plains and further into different states. That water that originally fell as snow will be collected and pumped into thousands of homes, businesses, and farmlands in order to supply thousands of people with safe drinking water. One thing people generally do not concern themselves with, is water usage, and so in the United States alone, approximately 3580,000 million gallons of water was used, with 70 percent of that coming from surface water (Price 1). With so much water usage, the demand has already outgrown supply, and new ways of providing that supply have been

After 4 years of intensive drought, California declared a state of emergency in January 2015 and California water crisis has been one of the biggest environmental issues in America (US. Geological Survey, 2015). On April 1, 2015, the governor of California, Jerry Brown, visited Sierra Nevada to measure the amount of snowpack, which has been done annually, and a formidable result came out. The measurement of snowpack of Sierra Nevada of this year met only 5 percent of the April 1 average. According to the record, it is the lowest number since 1950. So the governor Jerry Brown ordered a 25% cut in urban water use in California (Cava, 2015) between June 2015 and February 2016(Circle of Blue, 2015). For the first time in the history, the mandatory water reduction enforced in California, and in order to accomplish the order, Californians should have better knowledge about the water that we daily consume. The aim of this paper is to observe the supply, distribution, use, and disposal of the water in California.

Water, a resource typically taken for granted is becoming a scarce source for the southwestern states surrounding the Colorado River. For the past sixteen years the southwestern states have been affected by drought, wildfire, an increasing population, farming, housing development and increasing temperatures all are affecting our water supply which is decreasing at a frightening rate. These increasing issues have nearly depleted Lake Mead, a large reservoir that supplies water to all the Colorado River Basin states, but due to climate change, this large reservoir is not being replenished. This is an important problem not only to me and to those already affected by low water resources, and it should be important to everyone, considering it will

I chose this topic because I wanted to find out what the impacts of climate change can make on the ski industry. Snowboarding is a very big part of my life and it is important for all of us as it brings in all the tourists into our country.

There is an alarming situation emerging in the Southwestern United States where record setting drought conditions persist and the forecast for the future warns of continued drought conditions. Effects of the drought are as visible as they are alarming; Lake Mead, one of the largest reservoirs in this region is well below its high water mark leaving officials to wondering how they can continue to provide both water and electricity to the region. According to the National Climate Assessment 2014, ninety-two percent of this region uses irrigation to water crops accounting for seventy-nine percent of the water withdrawals (Garfin). In addition, a study by NASA concludes droughts in the Southwest United States may be longer and drier than previous droughts in the last one thousand years (Cole). The ongoing drought in the Southwestern United States is driving water reserves to dangerously low levels, adversely affecting an agricultural system that will have ripple effects throughout the entire country, unless the farmers of this region can learn to farm without water they may not survive.5

Every year, streams and rivers are fed in the spring by fresh cold water given off by the melting snowpack. Since the 1950s, snowpack for spring snow melt in the mountains of the U.S. Northwest is declining, and this trend is projected to continue as the climate warms further this century. While precipitation has increased throughout the 1900s-2000s, temperature increases have had the overpowering affect on the snowpack (Hamelt 4559). Reduced snowpack and early snow melts in areas such as the Rockies, Sierras, and Cascades is likely to hurt hydropower during parts of the year, and to place other stresses on the region 's water supply (Serreze 35). Rivers that rely on the snowpack melt later in the spring such as the Columbia River or

With a diminishing snow pack and the ongoing depletion and leaching of ground water with each passing year, the drought continues to wreak havoc. According to the Los Angeles Times as of 2014 “Electronic readings estimated snowpack state was as much as 50% of normal.” Despite the continuing loss of water resources, California is the largest consumer of water in the United States. Annually, California consumes 11% of all the fresh water in United States . Agriculture alone consumes 80% of all water consumed in the state California , yet due to federal subsidies ranging in the billions, state relief plans and private wells, farmers pay less per gallon as compared to all other California consumers of water. “Farmers in imperial valley irrigation district pay $20 per acre foot, less than one tenth the cost in San Diego.”

14,000 feet in elevation, I was about to hike up, Matterhorn, one of the highest peaks in the world, and the air was a brisk -7 ℉. A pall fell over the previously greyish-blue sky of the Swiss Alps as a violent snowstorm was forming in the distance. There was a light blue cover of snow forming over the base of Matterhorn Mountain in the Swiss Alps. The guide at the base recommended we put our hike on hold due to poor weather conditions and extreme avalanche warnings, but as arrogant teenagers, we decided not to listen.

The Sierra Nevada Range has seen less snow accumulation over the past decade. The depth and breadth of the seasonal snowpack in any given year depends on whether a winter is wet or dry. Wet winters tend to stack up a deep snowpack, while dry ones keep it shallow. By 2015, long-term hot and dry conditions in California and Nevada had brought snowpack to historically low levels. Sierra Nevada has generally peaked and begins to melt by the beginning of April. Runoff from meltwater helps replenish rivers and reservoirs near it.

Their focus was on lilac plants which bloomed earlier over time indicating that the spring was about to come earlier. American west greatly depend on the snow bearing winter storms for its water resources. Snow starts melting at the end of the spring giving the water resources for the dams, reservoirs and canals of the American west. This water resources supports agriculture in the west, which contributes 50% of the nation’s income. Team of climatologists predicted that the global warming affects this snowfall making the west to suffer for water and the studies also proved that the California experienced snowpack less 10% during the 20th century. Further research was done on stream flowers, temperature in Yosemite National park. Ecologist at the U.C.Berkley, were doing research on global warming that it affects the snowpack’s, and it might result in the scarcity of water during the mid to late summer. Most of the animals and plants were threatened about this climate induced

Climate change is a very real and it affects the entire globe. At risk are the polar ice caps, which are melting at an alarming rate. Our oceans are rising and the mountain glaciers are receding in length every year. Humans are destroying the planet at an alarming rate. Ski resorts, areas and mountain towns depend on a stable snow pack every year. To loose

Every summer, large ice formations such as glaciers and polar ice caps naturally melt. The following cold season of winter is meant to slow down the melting through snowing. However, in a recent couple of years, it has not been the case (Leary, 34). The persistent rise in temperatures as a result of global warming has led to abnormally higher rates of melting and reduced snowfall due to delayed winters and early springs. This has led to an imbalance in the ratio of ocean evaporation to runoff leading to rising in sea levels.

When addressing the nature of water changes, it is critical to distinguish droughts- departures from a local climatological norm that is presumed known- from actual dryness itself. After conceptually separating the two, it was found that America was not just in a temporary drought but would continue to grow drier. (Sherwood) A key component that many high-profile climate reports fail to consider is that with warming land, more rain is needed to sustain it. Although many regions will get more rain, few will get enough to match the growing evaporative demand. If this demand is not met, precipitation will continue to decrease, and our water resource will continue to shrink. (Sherwood) Although humans could take further measures to reserve additional freshwater, “humans already appropriate over 50 percent of all available renewable freshwater.” (Srinivasan) Because water consumption is proportional to the available amount of water, as America’s freshwater supply drops they begin to use a higher percentage of this valuable resource, leaving little amounts of water for other purposes. (Sherwood) To compensate for this high-use of water, America must put caps

Climate change has also had a major impact on snow and ice. There are strong warming’s in the Artic causing glaciers to melt and ocean levels to rise. James Balog, the photographer from Chasing Ice, had taken pictures of a glacier in the Artic and went back six months later and discovered that more than half of the glacier had melted. It had such a significant height change, that, James questioned if it was even the same glacier he had photographed the six months before. The average annual

The purpose of this article by Diffenbaugh et.al. is to determine how temperature increases due to anthropogenic warming change the probability of precipitation deficits that cause severe drought conditions, and determine what the conditions will look like in the future. They used historical precipitation and temperature data with Palmer Drought Metrics and global climate models to attempt to answer this question. It was found that in the past twenty years, the frequency of drought years has doubled, without any significant change in the trends of precipitation variability. This was attributed to significant increases in positive temperature anomalies causing an increased frequency of precipitation deficits leading to more occurrences of drought years. Global climate modeling suggested that by 2030, the region will transition to a regime where there is a 100% risk that all future dry years will coincide with warmer conditions, increasing the risk of extended drought conditions. This is not the first time this region has experienced prolonged drought conditions. However, it is the first time the drought has been this severe. Since 1977, the per capita water usage has decreased such that in 2013 the water demand is similar to that of 1977, meaning that it will be very difficult to come up with new short-term water conservation ideas.