Skip to Main Content

Greenhouse gases played role in record-low 2015 snowpacks

Snow on mountain tops.
In 2015, higher temperatures combined with low precipitation, leading to one of the lowest snowpack levels on record in California. Photo by Credit: Julia Guerra/Flickr.


A new study conducted by Dennis Lettenmaier, a geography professor at UCLA, and researchers from the University of Oregon indicates that rising sea temperatures may be equally as responsible for California’s drought as rising temperatures resulting from greenhouse gases. This finding, which explains California’s record-low snowpack in 2015, is cause for concern.

Read more at UC News

Additional coverage about reduced California snowpack:

Human-caused global warming contributed strongly to record ‘snow drought’ across the westernmost U.S. in 2015 Discover Magazine, 3 Nov 2016