A new study has found out that the aesthetically and tourist-attracting snow on the volcanoes of Hawaii might be gone by the end of the century because of global warming. The results also show that the two volcano summits in the known tropical paradise are usually snow-covered for at least 20 days each winter.
Based on the study, "Monitoring and Projecting Snow on Hawai Island," which was published in Online Library, climate modelers from the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa concluded that the future average winter snowfall is going to be ten times less today. It means that it would virtually erase all snow cover on the volcanoes of Hawaii.
To measure the snowfall, the researchers lead by Chunxi Zhang used satellite images in order to quantify recent snow cover distribution patterns in Hawaii. They also developed a regional climate model in order to simulate the present-day snowfalls, then projecting future snowfalls in Hawaii.
Zhang said that they recognize the snow in Hawaii as an aesthetic, recreational value and culturally significant to the residents and visitors. With that, they decided to examine the implications of the climate change to the future snowfall in Hawaii.
In an article published in Phys.org, the findings of the future snowfall in Hawaii was considered not as that surprising. There are also future projections showing that even with a moderate climate warming, air temperatures over the higher altitudes increase even more than at the sea level.
On average, there would be fewer winter storm systems that would impact Hawaii. The group's new method for establishing the current snow cover on these volcanoes and mountains provides another way for monitoring the progression of climate change in the region. The group also hopes that the study will show the benefits of the trend in model downscaling, the method that they used in this study, as a way of highlighting the effects of climate change.
