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Recognizing the link between snow and water security, a Dartmouth team compiled an unprecedented global-scale dataset of snowpack to show how uncertainties over determining snow depth and inconsistencies in classifying snow drought can actually be used to improve predictions of water availability.
The findings, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, have implications for policymakers, emergency planners, water managers, business owners, and anyone who makes decisions based on the accessibility of water resources.
"Snow droughts will increase with global warming," said Justin Mankin, assistant professor of geography and senior author of the study. "While one-off years of low snowpack may have felt like a less pressing issue in the past, the current shift to less snow every year forces us to evolve the research to understand the implications of snow droughts."
Snow provides important ecological and economic services, including storing water for use in warm weather months. Diminished snowpack can mean lower reservoir levels or soil moisture, impacting households, businesses, the environment and economies. Combined with increasing heat in a changing climate, snow droughts may also lead to emergency conditions such as wildfire.
"We were interested in using the observed record of snow droughts to understand their consequences and inform preparations for a low snowpack future. What we found is that we don't have a good observational basis for snow droughts, so we worked to fix that," said Mankin.
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