It’s Melting

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snowpack mapAs Scot points out, there’s a crapload of snow all over the western U.S. right now. That’s probably the most interesting bit from a climatological perspective. You typically see wet up north and dry down south, or vice versa. But we’ve also hit a warm spell down here, which means you’re starting to see things melt in a hurry.

I took a drive up north yesterday to give it a look. (Turns out Colorado is not that far if your employer’s paying for the gasoline.) If you get up close to a snowbank, you’ll see water dripping off the bottom, forming little rivulets in any low spot, flowing inexorably downstream. Every bit of exposed dirt is muddy right now. The result is the Rio Grande flowing through Albuquerque right now at double the normal rate for March 15. Similar gonzo flow up at Otowi, the main gage for determining Rio Grande Compact legalities, and really big flows on the Chama, where the dam tenders are starting to move water around in preparation for a high runoff year.

I think I’ll go for a bike ride to look at the river.

Who’s Saving Now?

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A confession: I’m one of those people who delights as the gas price numbers at the Kwik-E-Mart around the corner from my house tick up higher and higher. I know, I know, I’m a bad person. There are folks for whom that price really hurts, who don’t have the disposable cash to buy 30-year old Frank Zappa albums when the mood strikes them.

My thinking is that price increase will surely in some sense rationalize our consumption. If we don’t have the gumption to actually tax for the externalities, maybe the price runup will have a similar effect. Sadly,  not so much, as Erica Myers pointed out last week:

Despite a recent spike in domestic gas and electricity prices, demand for energy has barely moved. In fact, the more that 100% increase in oil prices in recent years may actually be leading to an increase in carbon emissions.

I Cried

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bike gearThere’s a pair of well-used, dusty old hiking boots and two tattered bouquets where the Paseo del Nordest Bike Trail crosses Commanche Rd. midway between home and my work. I didn’t know Roy Sekreta, who died there Monday night. But I stopped and cried after I rode past the little shrine today. There’s something so beautiful about the childlike freedom of being out on a bike. But when a bike and a car end up in the same place at the same time….

Spring in Switzerland

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spring flowers in SwitzerlandThis Rutishauser and colleagues have been tracking the blooming of flowers in Switzerland (can you think of a more delightful job as a scientist?). In a paper just published in GRL, they concluded that 2007 was a remarkable spring:

Anomalously high temperatures led to a very early onset of plant phenological spring phases, including 98 record early observations out of a possible total of 302 (32%) for selected phases in Switzerland.

To me, one of the most revealing conversations I’ve had with a scientist was a discussion about the variables that govern the timing of plants leafing out, and flowering, and dropping their leaves. We were walking in the woods, and he explained how relatively poorly studied the question of timing is. It’s the sort of data that, comprehensively collected, would be incredibly useful for climate change studies. But the comprehensive collection of such “phenology” data is still in its infancy.

For more on the importance of this issue and the efforts to collect better data: US National Phenology Network.

(Thanks to Garrulus for the picture.)

One Track Mind

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Me: “Did you have snow at your house this morning?”

Unnamed friend: “Yeah, but we could have ridden.”

Note: I wasn’t asking about a bike ride. I just wanted to know if it was pretty.