Rare Absence of Summer Snow Is Killing Mount Shasta’s Glaciers

The peaks of Mount Shasta are usually coated in snow year-round, however intense warmth and excessive drought have rendered the mountain unrecognizable. Experts fear that glaciers on the dormant volcano are prone to disappearing endlessly, ought to local weather tendencies proceed.

Climate change means we will’t have good issues, like snow-capped mountains in the course of summer season. Such is the case this yr with Mount Shasta. The tallest peak of this dormant volcano rises 14,180 toes (4,322 meters) above the scenic northern California panorama, making it among the many tallest mountains within the contiguous U.S. Shasta’s peaks will usually stay white from January by to December, and through years when the snow does soften, it doesn’t occur till late summer season or early fall. This yr, nevertheless, the peaks misplaced their white caps in July and August, because the Washington Post reports.

“This summer is different,” defined Mount Shasta Ski Park on its Facebook page. “This past winter we got 50% of our typical snowpack. The snow stuck around later in the trees where it is protected from sun and wind. The snow that fell on the mountain that was not protected from the wind and the sun, was blown right off the mountain. Then as summer came around, there wasn’t much snow, and the sun/heat took care of the rest.”

The elements for this uncommon absence of snow are a full cup of unusual warmth, a heaping portion of excessive drought, and a splash of incessant heat waves. Such was the unsavory meal served to the Pacific Northwest this previous summer season, together with an unprecedented warmth wave that struck the area in June. Temperatures remained scorching all through the whole summer season, with California as a complete experiencing its warmest summer season on file.

Earlier this summer season, Mount Shasta recorded a number of each day information for warmth at each mid and excessive elevations, together with two days of 103 diploma F (39.4 levels C) temperatures at 3,500 toes (1,067 meters), in line with the Washington Post. At 7,600 toes (2,316 meters), it wasn’t uncommon to expertise temperatures between 77 and 84 levels F (25-29 levels C).

I don’t must inform you what occurs when snow is uncovered to these sorts of temperatures. Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist at Nichols College and an knowledgeable on local weather change, stated Mount Shasta skilled a “spectacular loss of snowpack” above 12,000 toes (3,658 meters), as he told mtshasta information.

The downside with the absence of snow, other than the aesthetic loss, is that it removes a protecting layer that stops the melting of glaciers, of which there are seven on the mountain. The largest of those is Whitney glacier (and the most important in all of California), which has retreated by 2,625 toes (800 meters), or roughly 1 / 4 of its size, previously 16 years.

“The glaciers that are visible from the north side of the mountain are melting VERY quickly this year,” Mount Shasta Ski Park stated. “This has caused lahars (mudflows) down the mountain—taking out roads and bridges. The effects of climate change are visible.”

This yr alone, Whitney Glacier misplaced 20% of its complete quantity, and it’s now splitting into two distinct glaciers, as WaPo reviews. Of the 1.78 sq. miles (4.6 sq. kilometers) of glacial ice current on the mountain on the flip of the century, roughly half is already gone, in line with Pelto, who worries that the glaciers gained’t be capable to get better.

That stated, the potential for elevated precipitation within the area is a “wild card,” as geologist Nick Caselli informed mtshasta information. The mountain’s “glaciers pulse and shrink rapidly with wet or dry years,” he stated. El Niño, which gives California with extra quantities of water and snow, “is driven by heat in the ocean” and it’s “not impossible” that, as temperatures enhance, northern California “could get wetter.”

So yeah, it’s sophisticated, and solely time will inform if Mount Shasta will maintain on to its picturesque glaciers. As an apart, Mount Shasta is ranked among the many prime 5 most harmful volcanoes within the United States. It could also be dormant, nevertheless it’s not extinct.