Snowmelt from the northern Sierra Nevada provides water for a large part of California during the warm months. An analysis by UCLA says that if greenhouse-gas emissions are not curbed, the snowpack that provides the water could be half its current size by the end of the century, reports public radio KPCC-FM in Pasadena.
Researcher Alex Hall used computer models to predict the impact of greenhouse gases on the Sierra Nevadas. By the end of the century, the average temperature would be 7-10 degrees higher and the snowpack would be 50 percent of its usual size. KPCC quotes Hall as saying that with less snowpack, there’s “big implications for water resources as well.”
If nations control greenhouse-gas emissions along the lines of the Paris climate accord, average temperatures in the Sierra Nevadas would be 4-5 degrees higher and the snowpack “would be cut by only 20 to 30 percent,” said KPCC.