Just talk to the Brits about reduced snowfall. You will get an earful.
As others have said your graph relates to snow extent NOT snowfall, which the study investigated. The study also investigated how much water from snowfall contributes to stream flows (meltdown). Snowfall is measured as part of precipitation and not via extents.
The purpose behind this study is to identify risks related with predictions that snowfall will be replaced with precipitation. Considering that many towns, hydropower companies, ecosystems etc. are dependent on seasonal flows and rates it could have huge implications.
Also this graph http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/cha... is a better indication of overall snow extent (the black line is the 12 month mean). The trend over the last 30 years has been that on average the snow extent has been below the anomaly 0. In the middle of the 90s and around 2002 the snow cover was above the anomalie, but overwise largely negative.
Science is about improving our understanding (in this case of a natural system) where our understanding may be lacking. Apparently no one has looked at long term relationships between snowfall and catchment flows (only at seasonal/yearly trends). The conclusion reached was that flows would be less if rain made up a larger percentage of precipitation (including snowfall).
The chart you link to does not show that snowfall is increasing. You are simply wrong.
The chart shows "extent", meaning the area that is covered by snow. And I notice that you rather deliberately chose to not disclose that the same site provides Spring extent as well as Winter extent, and shows that coverage in Spring has been declining at a much faster rate than the Winter increase.
Same source, showing the full data set that is provided there:
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/cha...
The extent in the Northern Hemisphere has increased in recent years because the jet stream has slowed and become wavier. Arctic air has been dropping further to the south and more often, covering more area with snow than in the past. While areas to the south are hit with Arctic cold, the Arctic gets warmer air -- but due to insolation it is still cold enough to maintain snow cover -- it is the Arctic.
The real question is why the jet stream has slowed and whether the more intense winters south of the Arctic are now the new norm. The jet stream is created by the cold of the Arctic - actually, by the difference between the Arctic and areas south. The Arctic has been warming and ice declining, so climate change is very possibly the cause, which means that the colder winters in America's midwest, England and Europe may be the new normal. This is not proved and ocean currents driven by some natural process may be an alternate explanation; consider it at least a 50% chance that the increase in blizzards further south is a permanent change driven by the warming of the Arctic.
The declines in Snow extent in Springtime is due to earlier Spring warming which is causing snow to melt earlier.
The article appears to be about the relationship between rain-snow precipitation regimes in specific watersheds and average stream discharge. It is not an investigation of hemispheric snowfall or the relationship mean hemispheric temperatures and snowfall.
The highlighted statement in the WUWT article, “This means in a warming climate, if less of the precipitation falls as snow, rivers will discharge less water than they currently do” means that for a given amount of total precipitation (rain + snow), the proportion of rain/snow affects average discharge. The authors DID NOT STUDY and DO NOT MAKE ANY CLAIMS about any trends in the snow-rain ratio over time. Identifying a relationship between annual snowfall and average discharge is not the same thing as identifying a relationship between annual snowfall and mean global (or hemispheric) temperatures.
How can Deniers expect to be taken seriously when they are too stupid to understand their own “evidence?”
Well antarct spring extent shows 4 of the last 9 years snowfall are lowest since 91
The paper cited is from an online journal and not a peer reviewed paper
It is not a secret that less snowfall results in less river discharge. I would hazard a guess that this has been known for a hundred years or more
Once again you reference watts, who tends to cherry pick data and overall results He is little more than a liar and fabricator
Close to pure propaganda...in these journals and baloney news pieces. No objective reporting to be had, by and large.
Because journals deal in science not presenting just part of the story, they way Watts does
You present this graph
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/ima...
But I wonder why you left this one out
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/ima...
Spring also shows a trend, but not one that goes with the fairy tail you are trying to push.
"A press release I never quite finished reading"
I imagine the real reason Watts stopped trying to read the rest is he would have had to address this point.
He waxes on about met water for people but when does that happen, in Spring
I'm sure you will try the usual denier spin but the spring snow graph above speaks for itself.
such as this one http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/18/a-press-release-i-never-quite-finished-reading/
when snowfall is actually increasing
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/images/nhland_season1.png
