Mt. Rainier Glaciers Shrinking Rapidly

[hatrack]

EDIT

"Glaciers need new snow to survive. The decline of Washington’s glaciers parallels a record of dwindling mountain snowpack measured between 1950 and 2000, scientists said. Warmer winter temperatures mean more rain instead of snow. As the snow level rises, glaciers typically retreat to higher altitudes. “Glaciers amplify what’s happening,” Riedel said. “Not just year to year, but over five, 10 or 50 years.”

The most up-to-date analysis of what has happened at Mount Rainier, home to the largest glaciers in the contiguous United States, was done by Thomas Nylen, a Portland State University glaciologist. He used aerial photographs to calculate the difference in glacier volume and area between 1913 and 1994. During that time, the mountain’s glaciated area declined by one-fifth. The combined volume of the glaciers dropped by one-quarter. Retreat is more pronounced on the south side of the mountain, where glaciers are smaller and might accumulate less snow, he said.

EDIT

In North Cascades National Park, located in the most heavily glaciated area in the lower 48, some small glaciers have already disappeared. Over the past 150 years, 40 percent of the glacial ice and snow within the park has vanished, Riedel said. Thirteen percent of the loss has occurred over the last 40 years."

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http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4912595p-4501265c.html

[48pan]

1. The glacier is welcome to a whole bunch of the snow...

that has fallen in the northeast over the last several years. Hell, we had only two days over 70 degrees in May. This global warming is freezing New Hampshire.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. It's the Laurentide Glacial-Era High Pressure Cell

It ought to drift eastward out to sea in about 90,000 years.

On the other hand, there ought to be some mighty fine skiing weather for the next 900 centuries -- and all the way down the coast, too!

--p!