No one is neutral about snow. Depending on whether we’re planning to play in it or drive in it, go shopping or skip school, we hope either that it’ll fall or that it won’t.
The higher elevations of the Colorado Plateau can get lots of snow, with more than 200 inches recorded in a single winter at many mountain locations.
Major winter storms can pose big problems for animals such as deer, elk, and pronghorn, which can be trapped by heavy snowfalls and driven to starvation. But for smaller animals snow can be a blessing.
That’s because snow is a great insulator from cold and wind. A foot of fresh snow can keep the ground at about freezing, even when air temperatures above drop far below zero. That creates a protected habitat where voles, mice, and other warm-blooded animals can stay active all winter long.
Some alpine plants, too, manage to photosynthesize and grow while protective snow lies on them. The low and gnarled evergreen shrubs of timberline, known as krummholz, are shaped by the constant conflict between piled snow and freezing wind.
Snow feeds our streams and aquifers, but in our arid climate a third of it or more typically sublimates, or evaporates, into the dry air, and disappears from the region. That’s why those who like to see streams running full and wells topped off are firmly in the camp of those who hope for more winter storms—and more of the slippery white stuff.
Earth Notes is produced by KNAU and the Sustainable Communities Program at Northern Arizona University.
