The mountainous western United States will be nearly snowless for years at a time within a few decades, a new, widely publicized report says. The study, published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, predicts that if greenhouse gas emissions drive climate change on its current trajectory, rising temperatures will make the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascades largely bare throughout the year within a few decades. Already, the area has lost 20% of its snowpack since the 1950s. Moreover, snowpack is peaking and melting off earlier in the year and is expected to continue on that track. Atmospheric rivers are also warming and dropping more rain than snow. Decades ahead, the "potential for persistent low-to-no snow to disrupt the [Western U.S.] water system is substantial, potentially even catastrophic," the study's authors write.
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