Warm-winter cycles accelerating loss of Great Lakes water

[highplainsdem]

Last week, a winter storm dropped more than a foot of snow over the Great Lakes. Over the weekend, warmer temperatures melted that snow, which evaporated into the air.

The cycle has been playing out for the last 30 years in the Great Lakes, said Cynthia Sellinger, co-author of a paper to be published Saturday in Environmental Science & Technology, a scientific journal.

Winters have been warmer. Snow doesn't build up, then seep into the ground and recharge the lakes in the spring.

Instead, warmer winter temperatures melt the snow after it falls, leaving the ground frozen and allowing the snow to evaporate.


More:

http://blog.mlive.com/watershedwatch/2008/01/warmwinter_cycles_accelerating.html

[Tektonik]

1. we may as well pump it all to georgia since it's all going to disappear anyways!

[DCKit]

2. The residents and governments of the Great Lakes states know....

As soon as they say "yes" to any water sharing scheme, they're screwed. The water wars in the West have provided all the learning experience anyone should need to know that a pipeline (or ten) from the Lakes to the West would be a disaster.

[kestrel91316]

3. Little snow.......not much more rain........warmer = more evaporation.....

My DSis is 4 blocks from Lake Michigan and she has noted how much it has dropped since they moved there almost 25 years ago.........

[ProgressIn2008]

4. I can't even imagine the amount of ecosystems this would effect

Mother nature, interconnected.