Never so little snow in the Alps in the last 600 years

There snow it is becoming more and more ephemeral in ours Alps. Despite the typical variability that we know well between one winter and the next, what we have been experiencing in recent decades is something that has never been seen since before the discovery of the Americas. In practice, the duration of the snow cover has been shortened by more than a month in the last century.

This is what emerges from the article “Recent waning snowpack in the Alps is unprecedented in the last six centuries” just published in the magazine Nature Climate Changethe result of the collaboration of a team of researchers from the University of Padua and the Institute of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (Isac) of the National Research Council of Bologna coordinated by Professor Marco Carrer of the Territory and Agroforestry Systems Department of Padua.

“We have found that an extremely common shrub, the common juniperwhen found at high altitudes it has a creeping habit on the ground, i.e. it grows horizontally very close to the ground, and is able to record in its growth rings the duration of snow cover – says Prof. Marco Carrer, forest ecologist at the University of Padua and first author of the study -. In fact, being a few tens of centimeters tall, its growing season strongly depends on how early it manages to emerge from the white blanket that covers it.”

Environment

The forecasts underlying the climate adaptation plan

28 December 2022

“For the study of climate change it is necessary to have a broad time perspective. Unfortunately the information regarding the snow cover they have generally only been collected for a few decades – explains Dr Michael Brunetti of the Cnr-Isac -. Hence the need to look beyond the horizon provided by instrumental data and find other sources that allow us to extend the necessary climate information backwards in time.”

“By crossing the measures of the growth rings of the juniper, which can reach considerable ages (over 400 years), with a permanence model of the ad hoc snowpack, we were able to reconstruct the snow conditions over the past six centuries. This has allowed us to understand that what we have been experiencing in recent years is something that had never occurred before” conclude the two researchers.

Climate

The absence of snow at high altitude means drought in the summer months

by Giacomo Talignani

05 January 2023

It is the first time that information has been obtained over such a long time horizon for this extremely important meteorological variable. There snow in fact, it has a key role in the earth’s energy balance, but it is also fundamental for the natural, social and economic systems of the earth alpine region who support themselves thanks to his availability. In fact, we should acquire greater awareness of the new challenges dictated by current and future changes for a region whose equilibrium has shown itself to be highly sensitive to climate change.