Thursday, November 18, 2010

New Report Predicts Severe Climate Impacts on Lake Tahoe Area

Iconic Lake Tahoe could see its regional snowpack decline by as much as 60 percent over the next century, with increased floods more likely around 2050 and prolonged droughts closer to 2100, according to a new report from scientists who have studied the lake for decades. The study, written for the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, said the lake and its surrounding region could be headed for something of a winter tourism and water supply disaster over the next century as snowpack melts even under the rosiest scenarios. The average snowpack in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains that ring the lake on the California-Nevada border will decline by 40 to 60 percent by 2100 "under the most optimistic projections," says the report from three researchers at the University of California, Davis...more

1 comment:

Floyd Rathbun said...

These global warming day dreams by really smart and self important researchers indicate that global warming will result in less snow and less precipitation will cause more flooding. They ignore the fact that any recorded flood event on the Truckee River was the result of a deep wet snow pack that melted rapidly -- not rain fall. They choose to ignore the Little Ice Age and they ignore the droughts that caused Lake Tahoe water levels to drop below the outlet rim for well over 100 years less than 2000 years ago. This new form of science works seems to be designed to serve just one purpose that is giving politicians what they want to hear in exchange for government grants to pay for more irreproducible research results. That used to be called the best science money can buy.