The Arctic could get more rain and less snow sooner than projected. Here's why that matters.
The planet’s warming is transforming the sprawling and fragile Arctic, moving it toward a future that can be summed up in four words: more rain, less snow. But now researchers say that unprecedented shift — and the profound impacts that are likely to accompany it — could come decades sooner than previously thought.
Parts of the Arctic could become dominated by rain rather than snow during certain seasons by 2060 or 2070, according to new findings published in the journal Nature, particularly if the Earth continues to warm at its current rate. When those changes arrive, they will probably trigger consequences that affect not only local people and wildlife, but communities around the world.
Ice vanishing more rapidly could quicken sea-level rise along coastlines. Melting permafrost could release massive amounts of planet-heating gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. The “greening” of once-frozen landscapes could provide fuel for ravenous wildfires that spew more greenhouse gases into the air and further warm the atmosphere.
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” Michelle McCrystall, a lead author of Tuesday’s study and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manitoba, said in an interview.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/the-arctic-could-get-more-rain-and-less-snow-sooner-than-projected-here-s-why-that-matters/ar-AARj0hy
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