Snow shortages plague the mountains of the West

As gusts of wind howled around Mount Ashland’s vacant ski lodge this week, Andrew Gast watched from a window as a brief snowfall dusted the landscape. It wasn’t nearly enough.

The ski area’s parking lot remained largely empty. On the slopes, manzanita bushes and blades of grass poked through the patches of what little snow had fallen. Even the 7,000-foot summit — the highest point in the Siskiyou Mountains along the Oregon-California border — still had bare spots. These days, Mr. Guest has checked the weather forecast as soon as he wakes up, only to discover that warmer and drier days lie ahead.

“I’m trying not to pay too much attention to it right now because it just gives me heartburn,” said Mr. Gast, who runs the nonprofit community ski area south of Ashland, Oregon. He spent much of this week in his office, preparing to issue furloughs or layoffs.

Across much of the West Coast, from the Cascades in the north to the Sierra Nevada in the south, mountain areas record less than half their normal snowpack for this point in winter. The situation has caused serious problems for dozens of ski resorts during the holiday weeks that are crucial to their livelihoods, and has raised wider concerns about the future – for the coming summer farming season and for the region’s changed ecosystems amid a warming climate.

The snow that covers the mountain ranges in winter serves as a vital reservoir that is released as temperatures rise each summer. Snowmelt cools rivers enough to sustain salmon production, powers hydroelectric systems that provide the region’s electricity, and feeds the irrigation canals needed to supply the country’s apples, blueberries and almonds.

Climate change has already begun to deplete that natural reservoir, with researchers finding that the typical mountain snowpack has declined in recent decades, resulting in trillions of gallons less water in an average year — enough volume lost to to fill Lake Mead. Declining snowmelt has contributed to the drought crisis on the Colorado River, the water source for 40 million Americans.

“When I first started studying this topic 35 years ago, it seemed very theoretical at the time,” said Phil Mote, a scientist at Oregon State University who studies snow accumulation and its link to climate change. “That is not the case now.”

Farmers are already keeping an eye on this year’s forecasts and looking for signs of snow on the mountain tops. Scott Revell, the manager of the Roza Irrigation District in central Washington, said he and others are monitoring snowpack daily and preparing for a possible water shortage next year.

Even before winter, the region was in a supply gap, with a net water shortage into October and lower hills particularly dry. Mr Revell said there was always a possibility that early-year snowstorms could change the region’s fortunes, but the district, which irrigates thousands of hectares of apples, wine grapes and hops, has warned farmers that they could. far do not bode well.

“We have been taking action for several months to be prepared for serious shortages,” he said. That includes preparing for emergency water wells, exploring water leasing options and discussing with farmers whether some plots should be left fallow this season.

For ski resorts, climate trends are likely to mean shorter seasons, with large fluctuations from year to year. As a temporary solution, some resorts have invested in expensive snowmaking equipment to ensure a more consistent schedule.

But despite these efforts, resort operators have so far struggled to overcome the lack of natural snow this winter. Some ski areas remain closed, while larger resorts at higher altitudes have only opened some of their lifts.

At Palisades Tahoe, California, crews have recorded 38 inches of snow so far on a mountain that typically averages about 400 inches per season. The resort has slowly expanded its operations in recent weeks, helped by the $6 million it has spent on snowmaking in recent years. Big Bear Mountain Resort in Southern California tried to expand its limited operations but faced temperatures in the mid-50s on Thursday.

In Washington, Crystal Mountain has managed to open less than half of its ski area, and officials warned people to be aware of shrubs that might stick out of the snow in some spots.

Problems reopening ski slopes have spread to much of the interior west, including Sun Valley, Idaho, where artificial snow-made trails have been built through hills where many shrubs were still visible Thursday, bathed in sunlight.

Mount Ashland has faced problems years before. Due to a lack of snow during the 2013-2014 season, the ski area could not be opened at all. Historically, the mountain averages about 100 inches of snow per year, but that has decreased to about 90 inches in recent years.

Doug Volk, director of mountain operations at the ski area who has worked there for four decades, said he remembers the mountain opening to skiers around Thanksgiving some years when he was younger. Now even early December is less reliable, he said.

Mr Volk usually has around 60 people under him during regular operations. Currently there are only half a dozen, and there are discussions about further cuts.

“That’s probably one of the hardest things you’re going to have to deal with,” he said.

The mountain got off to a promising start in early December, when about a foot of snow fell in the area. But then an atmospheric river from the tropics flooded the region with warm rain. Adding to the uncertainty is an El Niño climate pattern that could make the Northwest warmer and drier than in other years. National Weather Service forecasters predict much of the West Coast will likely have above-average temperatures this winter.

Mr. Volk said the mountain needs about two to three feet of snow for the ski area to function. When he checked the forecasts on his computer this week, he saw no sign of that coming. The snow level would rise above the top of the mountain.

When a few showers hit the ski area this week, Lisa Parker arrived with her family, some of whom were visiting from Mississippi over the holidays. When the meeting was planned, Mrs. Parker had promised days of snow recreation around their Ashland-area home, on property that sits at an elevation of about 3,500 feet.

She said her family moved there to be close to snow recreation. But there has been no snow near their home this winter, she said. They finally got a taste of it after going to Mount Ashland, sledding in an area that wasn’t yet deep enough for skiing.

“This is really unusual for us,” she says. “We hunt snow like we used to when we were in the South.”