Tree Ring Data Proves That The Sierra Nevada Snowpack Is At A Five Century Low
California is in trouble. As a state that relies on the snowpack of the Sierra Nevada for 30% of their water supply, it’s not good news when you learn that the snowpack is at a 500-year low. This is serious.
Typically California gets 80% of its annual precipitation during the winter months. As the snow melts, it refills the state’s reservoirs that California uses for drinking water, fire fighting, and electricity. As of April 1 the snowpack was 95% lower than historical average.
A study published on Monday in Nature Climate Change looks at the snowpacks historical record. There are few written records of century old snowpack data, so researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Arkansas, and NCEI’s Paleoclimatology Program looked to the trees. By examining the paleoclimate tree ring records of century-old blue oak trees, researchers were able to reconstruct the snowpack data for approximately 500 years. During a big winter, blue oaks grow larger bands.
Based on their research, the study concludes that the 2014-2015 winter was an extreme situation. Not only was it the worst snow season to date, but it “is not just unprecedented over 80 years — it’s unprecedented over 500 years,” said Valerie Trouet, associate professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. “We should be prepared for this type of snow drought to occur much more frequently because of rising temperatures.”
Temps are rising, precipitation is falling, and climate change is happening.
Read more about this study and the California drought on:
