Climate change vexes mountain runoff predictions

The warm and wet weather of an early spring is speeding up the melting snow in the Boise River basin, forcing managers in increase dam outflows to keep reservoirs from filling up, according to a report from the Idaho Statesman.

A century worth of data from a USGS stream flow monitoring station on the Boise River shows that the runoff used to start in April but now starts in March. Experts say climate change will make weather variability more common and spring runoff more difficult to predict.

Image credit: National Park Service.