Why climate researchers are taking the temperature of mountain snow

Why climate researchers are taking the temperature of mountain snow

On a crisp morning in early April, Dan McEvoy and Bjoern Bingham cut clean lines down a wide run at the Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, then ducked under a rope line cordoning off a patch of untouched snow.  They side-stepped up a small incline, poled past a row of Jeffrey pines, then dropped their packs.  The pair of climate researchers from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada, skied down to this research plot in the mi…

Why climate researchers are taking the temperature of mountain snow – Mnnofa

The pair of climate researchers from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada, skied down to this research plot in the middle of the resort to test out a new way to take the temperature of the Sierra Nevada snowpack. They were equipped with an experimental infrared device that can take readings as it’s lowered down a hole in the snow to the ground. The Sierra’s frozen reservoir provides about a third of California’s water and most of …