You’ll have a good laugh reading this story from last Fridays Seatle Times. With our WA Cascades at over 160% of normal this had to be the bad-timing story of the decade...
SHRINKING SNOWPACK A THREAT TO THE WEST
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004157490_warmwater01.html
Human-caused global warming has been shrinking the snowpack across the mountain ranges of the West for five decades, suggesting the region’s long battle for water will only worsen, according to a computer analysis released Thursday.
As temperatures have increased, more winter precipitation has fallen as rain instead of snow, and the snow is melting sooner, according to the report in the journal Science.
The result is that rivers are flowing faster in the spring, raising the risk of flooding, and slower in the summer, increasing the risk of drought.
“These trends will only intensify over the next few decades,” said Richard Seager, a scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
While the decline of the Western snowpack over the past few decades has been documented before, the new study is the most definitive in assigning the blame to human-induced climate change.
The changes will be felt differently in different parts of the West, scientists said.
excerpt
“The result is that rivers are flowing faster in the spring, raising the risk of flooding, and slower in the summer, increasing the risk of drought.”
This is why men and beavers build dams.