By Suzanne Potter
This past winter’s snow drought across the western U.S. was about four times more likely because of human-caused climate change, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Mines.
The numbers are much worse in the Upper Colorado Basin, where extremely low snow levels were approximately 14 times more likely than in the preindustrial period.
Adrienne Marshall, assistant professor of geology and geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and the report’s co-author, said without climate change, the Nevada water supply would be much different.
“We would have had about 40 cubic kilometers more snow water and that volume is about the size of Lake Mead without climate change,” Marshall explained.
More snow drought to come
The report said the public should brace for more frequent severe snow droughts unless greenhouse gas emissions are aggressively reduced. The conditions are considered a big concern for cattle ranchers in Northern Nevada, who depend on snowmelt.
Dr. JJ Goicoechea, director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture, said the Walker, Carson and Truckee rivers are doing fairly well but the Humboldt River did not flow as usual into Lovelock in Pershing County.
“Our streams, creeks, and seeps didn’t flow like they normally do. We had producers hauling water into high-elevation ranges as early as June, where normally even in dry years, they would make it till July or August,” Goicoechea pointed out.
The extra time and money spent hauling water eats into ranchers’ bottom lines at the same time hay has become less plentiful and thus more expensive.
Goicoechea added the consequences of last winter’s low snow levels are coming to a head as wildfires affect the region, fueled by grasses not smashed down by the winter snowpack, leaving dry residual grasses.
Related: Why does Nevada keep ranking among the worst states to live? See studies
