Montana has seen less snow over the past fifty years
The Montana State Climate Office has documented an overall trend of less snowfall in Montana since 1950.1 Beyond that, what snow does accumulate during the winter is melting earlier.2 These phenomena are consistent with the fact that the west has been warming generally over recent decades, in a pattern that is what scientists expect from human-caused climate change.3. This warming is projected to increase.
The combined effect of less snowfall and earlier snowmelt has a number of consequences, as in other Western states, including a reduction in late-summer stream flow,4 an increase in insect epidemics harmful to forests and an increase in the frequency and severity of wildfires.5 All of these trends are likely to worsen with rising temperatures.
References
- Running, Steven W. “Annual Mean Temperature,°F 1951-2004.” See Slide 5 ↩
- Mote, P.W., A.F. Hamlet, M.P. Clark and D.P. Lettenmaier: "Declining mountain snowpack in western North America," (PDF) Bull. Amer. Met. Soc., 2005. 39-49. ↩
- Barnett, T. P., D. W. Pierce, H. G. Hidalgo, C. Bonfils, B. D. Santer,T. Das, G. Bala, A. W. Wood, T. Nozawa, A. A. Mirin, D. R. Cayan, M. D. Dettinger 2008 "Human-Induced Changes in the Hydrology of the Western United States" (Abstract) Science, 329, pp. 1080-1083 ↩
- Stewart, I.T., D.R. Cayan and M.D. Dettinger, 2005: "Changes toward earlier streamflow timing across western North America," (PDF) J. Clim., 1136-1155. ↩
- Littell, Jeremy, Donald McKenzie, David L. Peterson, and Anthony L. Westerling. “Climate and wildfire area burned in western U.S. ecoprovinces, 1916–2003” (Abstract) Ecological Applications, 19(4), 2009, pp. 1003–102 ↩
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