Rain used to be rare in the Arctic, but as the region warms, so-called rain-on-snow events are becoming more common. The rains accelerate ice loss, trigger flooding, landslides, and avalanches, and create problems for wildlife and the Indigenous people who depend on them.
snow
Posted inNews
Changing Snowpack Inspires New Measurement
Climate change is bringing increased variability to annual snowfall, which affects how much water is stored for ecosystem and human use.
Posted inNews
Shifting Winter Storms Bring More Flooding to India
Western disturbances are hanging out over India for longer, adversely affecting water security in the country.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Warming Experiment Explores Consequences of Diminished Snow
The SPRUCE ecosystem in northern Minnesota offered a setting to research exactly how a snowy environment responds to rising temperatures.
Posted inNews
California Mountains Face Weather Whiplash
Last month’s massive snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada followed a dry start to winter. Such extremes in precipitation may become the norm.
Posted inNews
Moving at the Speed of Snow
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 […]
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.