SnowShop tackles B.C.’s changing snowpack

For northern B.C., those discussions carry particular importance.

UNBC Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Dr. Joseph Shea says snow plays an important role not only in the region’s water systems, but also in determining the conditions communities could face later in the year.

“Northern B.C. is a place that, again, depends on snow. Extensively. It’s a it’s a place where snow packs affect not only the rivers, but things like wildfire. Risks and hazards. Low snowpack years correspond with increased fire risks, especially in the early parts of the season. So, northern B.C. should be paying attention to what’s happening in the winter time and what the snowpack should look like. ”

Shea says those winter conditions can have implications stretching into spring and summer.

Changes to B.C.’s snowpack are not occurring uniformly. Shea says some of the largest changes are being seen at lower elevations and in coastal areas where winter temperatures tend to be warmer. Warmer conditions can also mean precipitation that once fell as snow instead arrives as rain.

Snow is an important source of water across much of British Columbia, with accumulated snow effectively storing water through the winter before releasing it as temperatures climb.

UBC Hydrology Assistant Professor Dr. Kate Hale says changes to that cycle are creating new challenges for forecasting.

“The short answer is that it is becoming more challenging to predict, and that’s because a lot of the prediction tools that are used to relate snowpack and snowmelt information to streamflow predictions and forecasts are based on historical data. But as the climate is changing, the historical data are not necessarily informative of what’s happening now and as time progresses and so those tools need to evolve as our environment and snow season evolve. ”

Hale says those tools will have to evolve alongside changes in the environment and snow season.

She also says British Columbia has been experiencing decreases in snowfall and snowpack along with earlier melting. That can alter when water becomes available downstream and leave less snowmelt stored for later in the year, when communities could be dealing with drought and wildfire.

A major goal of the SnowShop is determining where gaps exist in researchers’ understanding of those changes.

Shea says universities, government agencies and industry are already collecting information about snowpack throughout B.C., but those measurements can come from different locations and monitoring networks.

“Where aren’t we measuring things well enough? And how do we actually combine the measurements that are coming from different groups and places? So we have academic researchers doing their measurements in the mountains, or in other places in BC. We have government networks that are monitoring snow packs. We have industry monitoring, snow packs and really, we’re hoping to come together and find a way to bring some of these different data sets together to actually give us a better picture of what we’re measuring.”

The hope is that bringing those groups together will help identify what researchers know, what they still need to learn and how existing information can be better shared.

For northern B.C., improving that understanding could help communities prepare for the effects of changing snow conditions long after winter ends.

The workshop is funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions through UNBC’s Faculty of Environment.

by Nick Dube

SnowShop tackles B.C.’s changing snowpack

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