From the “weather is not climate” department: All of the western states have snowpacks that are currently 110 to over 180 percent above normal with the exception of southern Colorado. This is unusual for most of the western states to be so far ahead on snowpack all at the same time rather than from one or two states.
And, according to the Squaw Valley Snow Tracker:
Squaw Valley has just reached over 700″ of total snow accumulation– something that has never happened in Squaw Valley’s recorded history.
Squaw Valley opened in 1949.
And in the context shown above, here’s a pertinent reminder of alarmism past:
“…there is no greater truth than global warming, with its threat of a shrinking snowpack…”
That is from this article in the San Francisco Chronicle in October of 2006.
(10-27-2006) 04:00 PDT Norden, Nevada County — For the ski industry, both in California and rest of the nation, there is no greater truth than global warming, with its threat of a shrinking snowpack and the point that Yogi Berra once made so succinctly: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
…
If nothing is done to curb emissions, greenhouse gas emissions could raise Sierra temperatures another 5 or 6 degrees by the end of the 21st century, according to some projections. The snowpack could be reduced by 89 percent.
Sources:
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/support/water/westwide/snowpack/wy2011/snow1105.gif
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/ms.pl
h/t to reader “MM”
UPDATE: Reader Kelly Morris brings this snow water equivalent map to our attention:
Australia’s southern states have been experiencing early, very chilly weather and the colder months of winter are still ahead. Already heavy snowfalls have occurred in southern NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.
Lucky the AGW crowd use jumpers for goal posts.
It has been a cold wet spring here in Oregon. But CAGW predicted that.
In fact, the more CAGW, the more snow we get. If we keep dumping CO2 into the air, we will end up with another ice age! /sarc
GPlant
I have gone to Colorado (around Gunnison) every September for more than 20 years. The last 5 or so years there was no snow in the area I go to which was not normal. Last year at my cabin, at 10,000 feet, it never even got below 32 degrees F. This year I’m hoping everything is back to normal. Of course the agw folks blamed co2, but this is just weather.
An expected catastrophe has been averted, yet again.
Has Algore been buying up chalets in the West?
On Monday, May 16, Baker City, Oregon, received 4 inches of snow. The elevation of Baker City is 3451 feet. I have a forestry project in the Grande Ronde Valley, just to the northwest of Baker City at 2800 feet that is a month behind schedule because of wet, cold conditions.
“If nothing is done to (insert draconian combat tactic here) , (plant food) emissions could (insert disasterous effect here) by the end of the 21st century, according to some projections (while ignoring others). The (climate indicator in question) could be (insert gloomy outcome here).
Is it my imagination, or is this paragraph extracted from a library of “dire prediction paragraphs”? It’s like a droning, albeit rather uninspiring, mantra. Couldn’t they at least dress it up in new clothes?
89 percent? Is that empirical? It SOUNDS impressive, but hey, why not go all the way and declare the snowpack a desert, which is worse than we thought, of course.
It borders on the moronic.
You guys are so behind the curve if you don’t realise that AGW causes more snow, as well as less snow.
Remember. Climate change will cause bad things, and climate change is happening. Therefore, if bad things happen, it is due to climate change.
Uh, not just southern CO lacking….but us in northern NM are at a large deficit as well. Overall western US, not bad though.
I wonder if that amount of snow can even melt before September…
In 2005, the American Meteorological Society published a paper endorsed by the EPA, NOAA, and the IPCC. The study stated:
“DECLINING MOUNTAIN SNOWPACK IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA” was due to global warming.
http://www.livingrivers.org/pdfs/LRlibrary/ClimateDocs/MoteHamletClarkLettenmaier.pdf
“The West’s snow resources are already declining as the climate warms” claimed the paper, ” Relative losses depended on elevation in a manner “consistent with warming-driven trends”.
Yearly snow depths at California’s Donner Summit 1879 – 2010
(2011 not yet shown) – trend?
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/donner.html
Oregon snowpack: 130% above normal
http://media.oregonlive.com/weather_impact/photo/snowmaporegonjpg-9133dd66bbe34c49.jpg
Washington snowpack – 190% above normal:
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20110412/NEWS/304129995/0/news/good-summer-news-olympic-snowpack-nearly-double-from-normal-best-in
“The snowpack could be reduced by 89 percent.”
They’ll have to change their predictions again. It’s not “Climate Change”. It’s “Prediction Change”.
The cold weather has slowed the snow melt womewhat here in southwest Wyoming. The north slope of the Uinta Mountians, in places, has better than 200% of normal snow water equivalent for this time of year. The recent snows have reloaded the snow pack so the melt will continue for just than much longer. The Bear River is running fast and muddy.
Don Bennett
Evanston, WY
Question: Is higher snowpack (east of the Continental Divide) responsible for the flooding Mississippi this year?
/Mr Lynn
The following link should be good for a laugh.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
I guess he didn’t mention spring and summer snowfall, so he has some wiggle room there…
Don Penim says:
May 18, 2011 at 6:27 am
______
The conclusions of the paper are a little overstated, but entertaining.
“We are left, then, with the most important question: Are these trends in SWE an indication of future
directions? The increases in temperature over the
West are consistent with rising greenhouse gases, and
will almost certainly continue (Cubasch et al. 2001).
Estimates of future warming rates for the West are in
the range of 2°–5°C over the next century, whereas
projected changes in precipitation are inconsistent as
t o s i g n a n d t h e a v e r a g e c h a n g e s a r e n e a r z e r o
(Cubasch et al. 2001). It is therefore likely that the
losses in snowpack observed to date will continue and
even accelerate (Hamlet and Lettenmaier 1999a;
Payne et al. 2004), with faster losses in milder climates
like the Cascades and the slowest losses in the high
peaks of the northern Rockies and southern Sierra.
Indeed, the agreement in many details between observed changes in SWE and simulated future changes
is striking and leads us to answer the question at the
beginning of this paragraph in the affirmative. It is
becoming ever clearer that these projected declines
in SWE, which are already well underway, will have
profound consequences for water use in a region already contending with the clash between rising demands and increasing allocations of water for endangered fish and wildlife.”
I’m wondering if “Climate Scientists” understand the difference between Climate and Weather.
Was it last October or November (2010) that “scientists” from UC Davis released a study indicating that less snow would fall in the Sierra Nevada; the Sierra snow pack would be greatly reduced due to global warming; spring runoff would be substantially below normal (and not meet the needs of the State); and the lingering drought would continue for many years.
By December, snow fall was way above normal. Well above normal snow depth developed through out the season, reaching near-record amounts in most places. The State announced the drought was over and water allocations to farmers would increase. It snowed 5–6 inches at Tahoe earlier this week. Spring events had to be canceled or altered due to snow. Major Sierra ski resorts announced they will be open through the 4th of July.
I believe that is called “the Gore Effect.”
Does anyone know what effect this may have on the level of Lake Mead?
Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor ski area had 643″ through yesterday afternoon, compared to the previous seasonal record of 606″, and more snow is forecast through the next week.
http://www.mtbachelor.com/winter/mountain/snow_report
TrueNorthist says:
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
Global warming is like a boat, sunk so far that water is washing over the sides, over the decks and bubbles and now pushing through the water covering it all
… and up in the wheel house the captain is still telling the passengers “everything is as predicted … we are still expecting to make port on time”.
This is the politics of the madhouse. Surely historians will look back at this time and describe our society as mentally ill with paranoia over a minuscule and largely irrelevant rise in temperature.
The one thing I’m not looking forward to is, trying to explain to our children why they should still respect “science” when so called “science” was the basis of this bizarre paranoia of modern society.
Praise Obama, the Earth hath been healed!
/sarc
“All of the western states have snowpacks that are currently 110 to over 180 percent above normal with the exception of southern Colorado. ”
It’s worse than we thought!!
The Amgen Tour Of California bike race had to cancel the first stage due to snow on Sunday at Lake Tahoe. It is a major bike race which many European riders come over for. It surely has made some people wonder about AGW.
“Question: Is higher snowpack (east of the Continental Divide) responsible for the flooding Mississippi this year?”
I flew over the Great Lakes region on my way back to Colorado from Boston on April first, and I was amazed at the vast snow cover below. Everything was totally white (like the Arctic) from Buffalo, NY on west to Milwaukee. If all that snow pack hasn’t contributed to the recent flooding in the Mississippi drainage, I don’t know what else would have.
A friend of mine, who is an environmental journalist and a committed climate change acolyte said recently in an email to me that we can “expect more bad weather in the future.” I replied that history has shown that statement to be true, but if by “more bad weather” he meant “increasing frequency” of bad weather that the statement was by no means certain. You would think that journalists would at least attempt to use scientific precision in their language, even if they don’t really understand the science. That is part of the problem.
Glad to see that my hat tip went through. 🙂 Being a hydrologist this is a good thing but one of two will happen. Much of the western states will have plenty of water through the summer as reservoirs steadily fill up to capacity, or as the weather system changes enough to bring enough rain or above normal temperatures for an extended period to cause rapid snow melt off will they see massive region-wide flooding. And if you think the Mississippi was bad enough, wait til the states get their taste. So far, knock on wood, but a weak wood at that. Much of the western states have experienced below normal temperature helping to keep the deep snowpack from melting away. Summer is only 33 days away. I can only imagine the trouble we’ll see in the next 30 to 60 days from now. :/