This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Mountain snow in the Northeast is different. The region's milder, more humid mountain climate shapes winter conditions that are different from those of the western United States.
Yet, snow models don't always capture those differences. In a new study published in the journal Water Resources Research, a team led by the University of Vermont (UVM) has improved a snow model to better represent conditions in the Northeast—using it to explore how snowpack and runoff may respond to changing temperature and precipitation. The snowpack is an important water resource for northeastern ecosystems and communities.
As winters continue to become warmer and wetter, it's important to understand how snow responds to terrain, weather and climate. "This study is an important step toward an improved understanding of highly vulnerable snowpacks in the face of climatic changes," explains Anna Grunes, the study's lead author and an M.S. graduate in UVM's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. "With changes to winters that we are seeing all too fast, the Green Mountains of Vermont offer a valuable laboratory to study this.
I'm excited to see how continued work with further monitoring infrastructure will support future snow hydrology research in this region." Many of the Northeast's mountains are situated at intermediate elevations (between 1,000 and 2,000 meters (3,280–6,560 feet)), where snowpacks are dominated by melt-freeze cycles, high-density snow and midwinter thaws. Snow often accumulates and melts more than once per winter, causing flooding and rain-on-snow events. However, accurately modeling snowpack dynamics is particularly challenging in these warm, wet, lower-elevation environments, as near-freezing temperatures create uncertainty.
Now, a team of researchers from UVM, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the University of British Columbia has applied a physics-based model to improve representation of midwinter runoff and better inform flood analysis in the region. While these models have been widely tested and implemented in the western U.S., few studies have tested the physics-based approach in the Northeast.
The study focused on Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont's Green Mountain range. The domain extended into the Ranch Brook watershed on the eastern slope of Mount Mansfield, the location of long-term hydrological monitoring and a tributary of the Winooski River that drains into Lake Champlain. Across this domain, with elevations spanning from 200 to 1,300 meters (660–4,270 feet), the researchers analyzed snowpack and hydrological sensitivity to simulated changes in temperature and precipitation.
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