Canadian Rockies
Montane snowpack stores and releases substantial amounts of water annually. In a recent publication, we investigated the extent to which snow water equivalent (SWE) and its centroid respond to different levels of warming. We showed that even a 1.0 or 2.0 °C increase in average temperature leads to approximately a 20 to 40% increase in the likelihood of below average SWE in Sierra Nevada. Significant changes to SWE will create new challenges for water and energy management and also flood control. (from Huning & AghaKouchak, PNAS 2018).
