DENVER (AP) — Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a two decade long megadrought, was essentially a once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found.Don’t get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The study authors coined the term “snow deluge” for one-in-20-year heavy snowfalls, when it’s cold and wet enough to maintain a deep snowpack through April 1. But even among these rare snow deluges, last year’s stood out as the snowiest, edging out 1922 in snow water equivalent, said study lead author Adrienne Marshall, a hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines.It’s timing couldn’t be better. Last year’s snow came after a megadrought that started around the turn of the century and was one of the worst in more than 1,000 years. That drought is gone now.“We shouldn’t count on these big snow years coming every couple of years to bail us out,” Marshall said.Looking at different scenarios of emissions of heat-trapping gases in the future, she said it would be “increasingly rare” for most people alive now to see snow like this in California in the future. Her team’s calculations show that these 1-in-20 year deluges will be 58% smaller by the end of this century compared to recent decades, with even just moderate climate change.UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part of the study but specializes i …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnDENVER (AP) — Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a two decade long megadrought, was essentially a once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found.Don’t get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The study authors coined the term “snow deluge” for one-in-20-year heavy snowfalls, when it’s cold and wet enough to maintain a deep snowpack through April 1. But even among these rare snow deluges, last year’s stood out as the snowiest, edging out 1922 in snow water equivalent, said study lead author Adrienne Marshall, a hydrologist at the Colorado School of Mines.It’s timing couldn’t be better. Last year’s snow came after a megadrought that started around the turn of the century and was one of the worst in more than 1,000 years. That drought is gone now.“We shouldn’t count on these big snow years coming every couple of years to bail us out,” Marshall said.Looking at different scenarios of emissions of heat-trapping gases in the future, she said it would be “increasingly rare” for most people alive now to see snow like this in California in the future. Her team’s calculations show that these 1-in-20 year deluges will be 58% smaller by the end of this century compared to recent decades, with even just moderate climate change.UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part of the study but specializes i …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
