Less snow is falling each year in Ithaca, data shows - The Ithaca Voice

Less snow is falling each year in Ithaca, data shows - The Ithaca Voice

ITHACA, N.Y. — Christmas in Ithaca arrived on a balmy winter day, with temperatures reaching the low 50s, and nary a snowflake in sight. Ingrid Zabel said she remembers snowy winters being the norm when she was a kid growing up in Ithaca.

“I can remember as a kid in the early ’70s, playing in the snow, and digging through these big drifts of snow and my brother making tunnels,” Zabel said. “And I sometimes thought about [how] we don’t seem to get as much snow anymore. But is that really true?”

Indeed it is, according to climate data reviewed by Zabel, who has a doctorate in physics and is the Cayuga Nature Center’s climate change education manager.

Zabel found that about 50 years ago there were, on average, 68 inches of annual snowfall in the Ithaca area. In the last 10 years, there have been an average of about 57 inches of snowfall a year. So far this autumn and winter, the Ithaca area has not seen a significant snowfall.

Zabel used the findings of the data, which comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Applied Climate Information System, to create educational graphics posted on social media by the Cayuga Nature Center.

The decrease in annual snowfall is one of the many effects climate change has had locally. Frost-free seasons in Ithaca are getting longer, and there are fewer days a year when temperatures dip below freezing temperatures.

The average daily maximum temperature in December in Ithaca used to be 34.9 F about 50 years ago, but over the last 10 years it has been 37.5 F, Zabel found. Ithaca’s average daily maximum temperature in December is projected to increase to between 40.4 F to 43 F in about 50 years from now.

“We get used to what’s been happening recently in the last few years, and that feels normal to us,” Zabel said. “And so it’s hard to trust our memories, but of course, we can trust the data.”

Zabel said many people in upstate New York might “kind of like the idea of a warmer winter, right? That might be kind of pleasant. It’s not so bitterly cold.” She cautioned that the effects of climate change are myriad, and not readily apparent.

For instance, mice and moles rely on snow as hiding places, and Zabel said warmer winters can make them more vulnerable to predators. She added the species composition of forests will change, and some insect species that burrow in the winter may suffer without snow cover, which helps insulate the earth from colder temperatures.

An unpredictable climate “could be incredibly devastating” to agriculture in upstate New York, Zabel said. Climate change is driving sea level rise, hotter summers, more intense storms, and drought among many other effects across the globe.

“Climate change is a problem, and could be a terrible problem,” Zabel said. “So even though it seems like we’re getting a little less snow, [that] it’s not a big deal, I’m not sure we really understand all the ecosystem impacts of that.”

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