There’s a lot more snow piling up in the mountains of North America than anyone knew, according to a first-of-its-kind study.
There’s a lot more snow piling up in the mountains of North America than anyone knew, according to a first-of-its-kind study.
Scientists have revised an estimate of snow volume for the entire continent, and they’ve discovered that snow accumulation in a typical year is 50 percent higher than previously thought.
In the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers at The Ohio State University place the yearly estimate at about 1,200 cubic miles of snow accumulation. If spread evenly across the surface of the continent from Canada to Mexico, the snow would measure a little over 7.5 inches deep. If confined to Ohio, it would bury the state under 150 feet of snow.
Most of the snow accumulates atop the Canadian Rockies and 10 other mountain ranges. And while these mountains compose only a quarter of the continent’s land area, they hold 60 percent of the snow, the researchers determined.
Read more at Ohio State University
Image: Researchers at the Ohio State University and their colleagues are working to get more precise estimates of snow accumulation on North America. The majority of snow accumulates in the Canadian Rockies, they found. Image courtesy of Banff & Lake Louise Tourism / Paul Zizka Photography.
