2024-01-12 17:38:08
At the global level, the IPCC predicts a 10% reduction in the extent of snow per additional degree. Michal / stock.adobe.com
Seasonal snow accumulation has decreased significantly over the past forty years – on the order of 10% to 20% per decade – due to climate change due to human activity, according to a study published in Nature .
In Europe, mountain dwellers are well aware of this: over the years, the snow cover becomes thinner and thinner. Snow is, however, a contradictory indicator: it « does not really behave like a sentinel of climate change »note Alexander Gottlieb and Justin Mankin, two researchers from the University of Dartmouth College (New Hampshire) in the preamble to their study published on January 10 in the scientific journal Nature.
At the global level, in fact, it is difficult to obtain a very precise trend in the evolution of the snow cover: it melts dramatically in places and thickens elsewhere, with certain regions sometimes finding themselves buried under violent blizzards. In its reports, the IPCC indicates that in the Northern Hemisphere, the water equivalent of snow in spring has « generally diminished » since 1981. It predicts an overall decline in snow extent of 10% per additional degree of global warming
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