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

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