Snowpack levels across Southern Oregon and Northern California are around to their 30-year average. But the 2023-24 winter has also been the warmest on record, according to Anne Nolin, a geography professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Nolin said her current research into mountain forests, like the Southern Oregon Cascades, reveals that these warm winters are stressing trees because there isn’t enough snow to get them through the summer.
“Places where we have hot, dry summers, if we have an early snow disappearance date, we can see that those trees really kind of stopped photosynthesizing because they’re so moisture-stressed by the time August and early September rolls around,” she said.
Because such trees stop growing, they dry out, becoming easier fuel for wildfires, she said. Nolin added that winter storms also aren’t as cold as they used to be because of climate change.
“It's not just that every day in the winter is getting warmer. What's really interesting is that the storm days are getting warmer, and they're getting warmer, twice as fast as non-storm days,” she said.
The winter storm this past weekend could help trees in the short-term.
Nolin said that burned forests can also exacerbate declining snowpack conditions. Because there’s no shade for the snow, it melts faster than normal, which in turn will increase the risk for future fires.
Individuals can help track this important data. Nolin's department helped produce a citizen science program called Mountain Rain or Snow to help determine what kind of precipitation is actually falling in a given area. A web application is available for cell phones, which can then be used to send reports whenever there’s precipitation falling.
“Even though we have 1,000 of these stations, we don't really have technology that allows us to widespread determine if precipitation is falling as rain or snow," she said. "The best way of doing it is people."
