How rising temperatures are reshaping California’s snowpack and Illinois’s drought
Lake Decatur flickr/Miinksva
Rising temperatures are having ripple effects across the country. California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting rapidly on an average of one percent per day. The melting snowpack is expected to be the second lowest in history by April 1.
In Illinois, over 200,000 people are affected by the drought with Champaign County experiencing its driest February in 132 years. Severe drought conditions in Central Illinois have caused water restrictions in Sullivan and Decatur.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences professor Stephen Nesbitt, Illinois State Climatologist with the Prairie Research Institute, Trent Ford, and Champaign County Emergency Coordinator John Dwyer talk the impact of these rising temperatures.
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