A new study finds wildfires are burning more high elevation areas and dramatically impacting the West’s snowpack as a result.
—inspired her research, because it started so close to the Continental Divide. That surprised Kampf. “We started wondering, is this something that’s happening elsewhere in the West?” she said.
The researchers homed in on places where snow doesn’t completely melt off until or after May, called late-melt snow zones. These areas tend to stay cold long into spring, and then melt relatively quickly—often creating big snowmelt pulses in stream flow. The ground cannot absorb all that snow when it melts simultaneously, and as a result, the water ends up in streams for uses downstream.
Wildfires can affect snow in numerous ways. Trees usually intercept some snow, but when they lose foliage or die, more snow initially reaches the ground. Sometimes, this leads to deeper snow. But then other competing factors take hold. A more exposed snowpack absorbs more solar radiation. Soot and other burned materials fall on the snow, reducing its ability to reflect sunlight back and also encouraging a faster melt. Open areas are also more vulnerable to being scoured by wind.
The study also found that snow in burned areas contains less water. “Peak snow water equivalent, where the snowpack gets to at the end of the season, is pretty important,” Kampf said. “A lot of places, it’s going to be really correlated with how much streamflow there is.”
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