LESS snow is falling on mountains because of pollutants such as sulphates and nitrates in the atmosphere. This may be bad news for people in drought-prone regions of the world.
A team led by Randolph Borys from the Storm Peak Laboratory in Reno, Nevada, used remote-sensing data and mountaintop measurements from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to show that there was less snowfall on days when pollution levels were higher. “This could be important in arid regions where pollution might reduce the available water for human populations,” says team member Douglas Lowenthal.
Previous research has shown that particles of pollution…
