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  According to a new study, river basins that were once snow-bound are now experiencing a decrease in snowpack as a result of climate change.
  
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  Areas that experience winter temperatures below this threshold are more likely to maintain their snowpack. Conversely, warmer regions will see a rapid decrease in the amount of snow.
  
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  Europe, North America and the Great Salt Lake are all experiencing significant spring snowpack loss.
  

A new study has found that climate changes are to blame for the shrinking snowpack in river basins all over the world.

The study published in Nature on Wednesday concluded that “many of the most populous basins around the world are at the brink of rapid snow decreases.”

The study determined that 17.6 degrees is a critical threshold for future snowpacks throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The snowpack can survive in places with a winter temperature below that threshold because the temperatures are cold enough. Winter average temperatures in areas that are warmer than 17.6°C tend to melt the winter wonderland dream like the wicked Witch of the West. It’s happening quickly.

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“You could be in a regime where you’re experiencing rapid and accelerating loss with the warming,” said Alexander Gottlieb, a Dartmouth College Earth Systems Scientist.

In the past, most studies looked at snow coverage. This is a simple way to determine whether or not there’s snow on the ground. This research looked at snowpack, which is a more comprehensive measurement, including depth and quantity, when it was at its peak in March. The spring snowpack is crucial for providing a constant supply of drinking water and irrigation to billions of humans, but melting earlier and bigger can cause problems.

Scientist Elizabeth Burakowski from the University of New Hampshire, Earth systems, who was not involved in the research, stated that the study “shows beyond a reasonable doubt” that “humans are responsible for the decrease in snowpack across dozens of rivers basins in the Northern Hemisphere,” and the melting of snow will “ratchet up each degree.”

Burakowski wrote an email that the study showed our future snow depends on how we act to combat climate.

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Gottlieb and Dartmouth Climate Scientist Justin Mankin studied 169 river basins in the northern hemisphere. They found a 40-year downtrend in 70 river basins and an upward trend in 12 others.

Mankin and Gottlieb were able, by using variations of standard scientific methods, to demonstrate that climate change contributed to melting in 23 of these shrinking snowpacks. They found that climate change contributed to the building of snowpack in eight river basins located all over eastern Siberia. The temperatures were cool enough to maintain it, but precipitation was increasing.

They found that Europe and North America suffer from some of the largest spring snowpack loss, including the Great Salt Lake basin, Merrimack, Connecticut and Susquehanna river basins, Hudson and Delaware river basins, Neva and Vistula river valleys, Dnieper and Don River Basins, and the Danube and Danube River basins.

Gottlieb noted that the Colorado River Basin in Colorado, and some parts of Wyoming are good examples of the shrinking snowpack. The average winter temperature is 23 degrees Celsius (-5 degrees Fahrenheit), which may seem cold enough to produce snow, but it’s not, Gottlieb said.

Gottlieb stated that “this is an area where we have started to notice these types of accelerating losses.” “We can see a really clear picture about anthropogenic forest-snow loss in the last 40 or so years.”

Gottlieb and Mankin used the standard climate attribution technique to document the fingerprints of man-caused global warming. They compared what happened over the past 40 years in a world that was warming to thousands of computer models showing what would have happened to these river basins if there had been no climate change.

Mankin says that places with temperatures colder than 17.6 degrees are responsible for 81 per cent of the snow in the Northern Hemisphere, but only 570 millions people live there. He said that more than 2 billion people reside in regions where the average winter temperature ranges from 17.6 to 32 degrees (-8 to zero Celsius).

The key to water supply is that, as the warming increases, “the snowpack changes will accelerate much faster than they have,” said Daniel Scott. Scott is a scientist from the University of Waterloo, who was not involved in the research.

This is because the process is not gradual. Melting occurs quickly above a certain temperature. It’s cold enough below that mark to cause the additional moisture in the atmosphere from climate change to result in more snow. Gottlieb and Mankin saw this in eastern Siberia.

The 17.6-degree threshold is “a better indicator of where and how much danger there is,” said Waleed Abdalati of the University of Colorado, an ice scientist. He was a former NASA Chief Scientist who wasn’t involved in the study.

An economy will suffer if there is no snow. The ski industry, with its sometimes stark images of artificial snow in a brown landscape to be enjoyed by winter revelers, has been a good example for many years.

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Some ski resorts wait anxiously each year for Mother Nature’s snowfall to begin operating their lifts. Some ski areas have shut down completely after their seasons became too short.

The larger corporate-run mountains such as Colorado’s Aspen Snowmass are able operate consistently, despite the fact that there is less snow and shorter seasons.

Auden Schendler is the senior vice president of sustainability for Aspen One, parent company of Aspen Skiing Company.

The resorts also built new ski runs higher up in the mountains, where snow is more likely to fall than at base level. This has protected them from a significant economic loss for the time being.

Schendler stated that “that in no way lessens the urgency” of the need to take action with force. Aspen Snowmass, one of a handful of ski resorts that have adopted climate activism as a new industry standard. They recognize the urgent need to lobby climate-friendly policies in order to survive well into an era when temperatures are rising.