Snowflakes take many routes from cloud to ground. Large, soft flakes swirl and tumble gently from above. Sharp, painful bits of ice get spit from the sky in a sideways burst. Mushy, wet snow falls in clumps. The ways in which snow travels through the air seem nothing short of complicated. But a new study […]
snow
Posted inNews
Spring Heat Waves Pack a Punch for Snowpacks in the Pacific Northwest
New research shows how the snowpack loss due to moderate springtime heat waves outweighed that of a record-shattering summer heat dome.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Iron Snow Ebb and Flow May Cause Magnetic Fields to Come and Go
Lab experiments find that iron crystals in planetary cores may form in bursts, causing periodic dynamos.
Posted inNews
Dust Is Melting Snow—And Current Models Can’t Keep Up
Mountain snowpack melts quicker when coated in dust. This cyclical problem is forcing water forecasts to evolve.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Northern Ecosystems are Shaped by Snow
Changing climate in the Arctic leads to a shorter snow season but deeper snow in the depths of winter. Under the insulating snow, biological processes are accelerated leading to higher nutrient availability and carbon losses.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Summer Fire Means Winter Melt
Changing wildfire activity in California may impact seasonal hydrology by causing intense snowmelt during winter in areas where fires extend into higher elevation zones.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Streamflow Drought Intensification in the European Alps
A five-decade analysis of drought generation processes in the Alps shows their changing seasonality in high-elevation basins with increasingly frequent droughts caused by a lack of snowmelt water.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Measuring the Microstructure of Snow from Space
There is more to snow than flakes. Microwave measurements are shown to be capable of illuminating the microstructure of snow in ways that will improve our ability to monitor snow fields from space.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Wildfires Affect Snow in the American West
Data from 45 burned sites help researchers better understand climate change and wildfires’ impact on snowpack.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
It’s Cool to be Short When You’re in the Arctic Permafrost
Extensive ground temperature measurements complicate our understanding of how vegetation cover, snow duration, and microtopography influence the pace of permafrost thaw in a changing climate.