In The West, Snowpack In 99% Of Recently Burned Forests Melts Faster And Earlier, Altering Water Cycle

[hatrack]

EDIT

The new study, published in the September 17 issue of Science Advances, used satellite data to track when the snowpack disappeared each season and examined how that timing changed after a fire burned through forests. The research also concluded that warming temperatures due to climate change will further accelerate post-fire melting.

In the first year after a fire, the researchers found that under average winter conditions, snow melts earlier in 99% of the snow zone. “Postfire snow cover loss is more extreme in relatively low-elevation, warm environments compared to that in high-elevation, cold regions,” wrote the researchers from the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. The loss of the forest canopy due to a fire can actually increase snow accumulation on the ground below because scorched trees that are missing branches and needles intercept fewer falling snowflakes. But opening up the canopy changes the flow of energy in the forest by exposing the underlying snowpack to more solar radiation that can melt the snow.

Wildfires also cause soot and darkened debris to fall on the snowpack, which reduces its reflectivity, allows more heat to be absorbed and leads to quicker melting. Burned forests are also more susceptible to wind, which can further erode the snowpack. “It’s basically just a big energy balance puzzle, but it seems like that increase in sunlight and decrease in the reflectivity of the snow are both leading to (an) earlier snow disappearance date,” said lead author Arielle Koshkin, a doctoral candidate in hydrologic science and engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. “Even if we do see more snowfall in the forest, it’s not overriding those energy balance changes.”

The study notes that previous research has found that the acreage of Western forests burned in the seasonal snow zone increased by up to 9% annually between 1984 and 2017, with the biggest rise in burned area occurring above an elevation of 2,500 meters (8,202 feet).

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02122025/wildfires-snowpack-in-the-west/

[Ponietz]

1. Antimony, arsenic and uranium from fire suppression materials in Mora groundwater

First, their “controlled” burn that destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of forest. Then, their fire suppression materials poison the groundwater.

https://www.lasvegasoptic.com/news/new-mexico-officials-mora-residents-say-feds-should-respond-to-groundwater-contamination/article_47fdac0c-9982-426d-a848-d16ce4b3aa1b.html