Western dust said to melt snowpack
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Ranching, mining, energy exploration and other activities that raise dust in the West are helping diminish the snowpack that supplies much of the region’s water, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
University of Colorado scientists said dust was blowing from the deserts onto the state’s snowcapped mountains, absorbing more of the sun’s warmth because of its darker color and melting the snow earlier and more quickly than in the past.
