Lack of snow can be a boomerang in summer – drought threatens

Swiss scientists warn of a dry summer due to the lack of snow. In a new study, a team of researchers from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands shows a link between lack of snow and drought.

“Today’s snow deficit is the drought of next summer and autumn,” climate scientist Manuela Brunner said in a press release from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) on Tuesday. Last year, the lack of snow in the winter led to more drought in the summer.

A problem in the summer is the lack of snow due to the lack of melt water. This affects plants in summer and fall, from grasses to shrubs and trees. But the energy industry must also adapt to changing water levels in its reservoirs.

To demonstrate this connection, Brunner’s research team examined how droughts have developed in Switzerland over the past 50 years. “In the period from 1994 to 2017, the number of droughts caused by snowmelt increased by 15 percent compared to the period from 1970 to 1993,” explains Brunner. The results were recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The reason for this is climate change. Due to the rising temperatures, the snow line is also rising. As a result, there is generally less snowfall. In addition, climate change adds another aspect to the drought problem. As it gets hotter and warmer, more water evaporates and the soil and riverbeds dry out faster. According to the climate scientist, there is no change in sight: “The trend will continue in the future.”

(aeg/sda)