California Alert: Sierra Nevada Snowpack Falls to Lowest Level in 500 years

According to a recent study led by the researchers at the University of Arizona and subsequently published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the paper has stated that the Sierra Nevada snowpack in 2015 has hit the lowest level than it has ever reached in the last 500 years.

Senior study author Valerie Trouet, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona claims that they were expecting 2015 to be quite drastic, but the decline in snow to such extremity was unprecedented, reports LaCrosseTribune.

Primarily there are two main climatic factors involved in affecting the levels of snowpack. One determining factor is the amount of precipitation and the other is the temperature at which time the precipitation occurred. According to I4U News, the researchers compared the snowpack level of 2015 with the levels of previous years, by analyzing data from two tree-ring studies from 1405 and 2005, as this determines the annual winter precipitation levels in California as well as the snowpack measurements since 1930, on a year to year basis. Thereby, the lack of snow in 2015 across Sierra Nevada is attributed to an extreme dip in winter precipitation combined with the soaring high temperatures, a record in 500 years. Less snow in winter consequently results in less water in summer.

"Sierra Nevada snowpack plays a critical role in replenishing the state's water reservoirs and provides 30 percent of its water supply," study reads. "As a result, a multi-year and severe snowpack decline can actually impact human and natural systems, including urban and agricultural water supplies, hydroelectric power and wildfire risk."

The California drought began in the year 2012 and is one of the most severe droughts to date. "We should be prepared for this type of drought to occur much more frequently because of rising temperatures," said Trouet. "Anthropogenic warming is making the drought more severe."