Snow Pack Reduction Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. Are we losing our average annual snow pack at an alarming rate? Many media stories would lead us to believe that’s the case.But, University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences professor, Cliff Mass doesn’t think so …
MASS … “Not really. I mean, really, at this point it’s relatively slow. I mean the snow pack is very, very slowly declining. It’s nothing precipitous. We haven’t lost 50% of the snow pack. In fact, if you plot the Cascade snow pack for the last 30-years, you hardly see any trend.”
Recently, Mass says it varies from year to year …
MASS … “There’s some up and downs, some big up and downs, like 2015 was a big down, but a number of years recently have been above normal so you’ve got to be very careful.”
But, Mass says that doesn’t mean we’re NOT losing snow pack …
MASS … “What the climate computer simulation suggests is that by the end of the century, the snow pack in the region will be down substantially. You know, we’re talking about losing half the snow pack, maybe even a little bit more by the end of the century. But, at this point, we’ve lost a little, but it’s not catastrophic.”
And, technology is helping us track those gradual changes …
MASS … “That’s right, and in fact, you know, people like myself are doing climate simulations in high resolution out to the end of the century, and so I think we have a better view of what’s going to happen.”
Listen tomorrow for more on managing our snow pack changes.