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Snow at lower elevations always melts first… or does it? Synchronous Snowmelt and Streamflow in the Sierra
On average, temperature decreases 6.5C per km elevation gain (3.6F/1,000 ft) in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Cooler air can hold less moisture than warm air, so this process also increases precipitation with altitude. This is why, in general, higher elevations receive more snow than lower elevations each winter. These temperature differences also explain why we expected snow at lower elevations to start melting first. In most years (7 out of the 11 years initially examined) and on average, snow started melting at lower elevations first, but the onsets of spring in 1998, 1999, and 2000 were sudden and synchronous, just like 2002.
To design an instrument network to monitor how snow melts at different locations and subsequently flows through the river system. In the long run, it is estimated that, in response to projected global warming of 3 °C, the spring-summer snowmelt will be diminished by about one-third (Roos 1987). These studies indicate that winter floods will increase, and less water will be available in the summer, when demands from both humans and ecosystems are high. Thus, understanding snowmelt processes from determining the timing, magnitude, and spatial variability of snowmelt runoff, to better understanding climatic change, has become crucially important.
synchronous snowmelt, snowmelt, streamflow, water reservoir, precipitation, global warming, stream depth variations, flow velocity, snowpack, temperature rise, meteorological data, solinst levelogger
Lundquist, Jessica. "Snow at lower elevations always melts first… or does it? Synchronous Snowmelt and Streamflow in the Sierra." Sierra Nature Notes, Volume 3, February 2003
January 31, 2003 10:00 PM
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Rafferty Creek Bridge, Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne Basin, Tioga Road, Rafferty Creek trail, Vogelsang, Gaylor lakes
Tuolumne, Merced
Madera, Merced, Tuolumne