WA snowpack starts off strong, but El Niño warming looms

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Much of Washington is accumulating snowpack faster than normal so far this fall, a small victory for a state plagued by drought all summer. The trend isn’t expected to continue, climatologists say. Early snowpack data is limited and winter doesn’t officially begin for yet another month. Karin Bumbaco, Washington deputy state climatologist, and Guillaume Mauger, a research scientist at the UW Climate Impacts Group, are quoted in this article from the Seattle Times.

‘Every part of a degree of warming that we can avert will make the future better’

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Researcher Amy Snover explains why the IPCC report matters, what it says about climate change in the Northwest, and how communities can prepare.

“This will just keep getting worse until we stop it,” Snover said. “The science is really clear that every bit, every part of a degree of additional warming makes the future worse, which means that every part of a degree of warming that we can avert will make the future better. I do this work because the future isn’t written yet. We’re actually writing it every day we live, and I want to be part of making the future better.”

CIG releases report on effects of human activity on the ocean and cryosphere

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Drawing on recent data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as research from the Climate Impacts Group, this brief provides an overview of the importance of the ocean and the cryosphere (Earth’s frozen regions), how they are being affected by human activity and what we stand to lose if we don’t act now.