Smaller Snowpack
Melting Ice
Closed Slopes
The accumulation in the Northwest and the Sierra Nevada — crucial for irrigation and drinking water — may shrink 40 to 70 percent by 2050.
Glaciers may disappear from Montana’s Glacier National Park by 2050. Above, the disappearing Jackson Glacier in 2009.
Half of the ski resorts in the Northeast could close in the next 30 years. If emissions remain high, only 4 of 14 resorts would remain profitable by 2100.
MONTANA
N. DAKOTA
S. DAKOTA
WYOMING
NEBRASKA
AVG. DECLINE
SINCE 1970S
Shorter Winters
COLORADO
Snow season in the Northeast may be half as long by the century’s end. It will likely be confined to highland areas, leaving the rest snow-free.
KANSAS
OKLA.
A Warmer West
NEW MEXICO
More precipitation will arrive as rain, causing snow depths to drop between 25 and 100 percent in the West.
10
TEXAS
NORTHERN
HEMISPHERE
SPRING
SNOW COVER
5
MILLION
SQUARE
MILES
Shriveled Ski Meccas
Missing Snow
Aspen Mountain in Colorado could have its skiing area reduced to the top quarter of the slope; Park City, Utah, could lose its entire snowpack by century’s end.
In the last 47 years, spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere, right, has shrunk by more than one million square miles — a loss nearly equal to the land area of these 10 states.
Photographs, left to right: David McNew/Getty Images, Lisa McKeon/U.S. Geological Survey via Associated Press, Toby Talbot/Associated Press
’67
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