If the
snowpack melts, amount of water that would be released depends on the snow water equivalent (SWE) of the
snowpack and the vertical height of the
snowpack on the ground is the snow depth.
A growing body of research suggests that warming temperatures and a loss of
snowpack linked to climate change may significantly shrink the range where it's possible to make maple syrup.
February and March brought the Colorado River Basin an interesting twist of fate with a very wet winter that produced a deep
snowpack in the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
Thawing
snowpack and heavy rains have brought historically high flooding to several Midwestern states and have led to thousands of evacuations, BBC reports.
With the current high temperatures and increased humidity, the most dangerous time is around noon and early afternoon when the
snowpack is wet and overloaded and its stability is most likely to be affected, Kamen Yakimov explained.
City officials expect much of the
snowpack to melt over the weekend due to warmer temperatures and rain.
They discovered that the amount of dust on the
snowpack controlled the rate at which the rivers rose in the spring, regardless of the air temperature.
This area, which receives little precipitation during summer, relies considerably on the wintertime precipitation phase and
snowpack accumulation to sustain a multitude of ecosystem goods and services [2].
A combination of factors - plenty of rain this spring, brimming reservoirs, a copious
snowpack and some warm weather - are making the McKenzie and Willamette rivers and their tributaries run cold, full and fast.
In addition to the precipitation, California saw a considerable increase in its
snowpack, which will help keep the state out of drought conditions this spring and summer when it begins to melt.
Snow Water Equivalence (SWE) represents the total amount of water available if the
snowpack were melted instantaneously.