Source: USA Today

Excerpt:

Will climate change mean fewer big snowstorms like the blizzards occurring on both coasts and across the country this week? 

You might be surprised. Researchers studying how the warming climate is changing snowfall and snowpack are drawing new conclusions about the future of snow, and it’s a mixed bag. Some researchers find overall snowfall declining in many areas, leaving less snow packed into mountain ranges in the spring, while others say the warmer winters won’t prevent some of the more intense snow storms − at least not yet.

A new study by two Dartmouth College researchers looked at the decline of spring snowpack in major river basins in the Northern Hemisphere. They concluded the losses may be already be greater than anyone has realized, in part because it’s such a challenging thing to measure. Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, linked human-caused warming to declines in snowpack in at least 31 river basins in the hemisphere since 1981. 

Read more: Less snow, same blizzards? Climate change could have weird effects on snowfall in US.