
The culprit behind snowmelt floods isn’t temperature, it’s dirt - tim_sw
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/real-culprit-behind-snowmelt-floods-isn-t-temperature-it-s-dirt
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pjkundert
I've often wondered about the megatons of soot blowing over the north polar
region from China.

As someone who has lived with winter 6 months of the year for 50 years, I
thought it was pretty obvious to everyone that by far the largest determinant
of snow melt was albedo change due to soil contamination.

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jschwartzi
It makes sense to me. One of the things you look for when kicking steps up a
mountain snowfield is dirty snow. The dirt causes it to melt faster than
surrounding snow, and when it refreezes it becomes a more stable surface to
stand on and to kick steps into.

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anfractuosity
Is this is related to the albedo effect? I'm sure I read that with snow
covered land, as snow melts and reveals darker land, you get a positive
feedback loop that accelerates the melting of more snow.

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pizza
Yup. Fantastic series on the dynamical process mathematics of the
environment/climate change from John Baez

[https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/mathematics-...](https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/mathematics-
and-the-environment-part-5/)

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anfractuosity
Ooh awesome that looks really good, I'll have to go through those.

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fnord77
I always thought a supervillian could just crop dust the south pole with
carbon and do a lot of damage

(or perhaps some more efficient way of dispersing some dark colored dust)

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DaveSapien
Youtuber Thunderf00t demonstrated something similar a while ago:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSJF5FJivIc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSJF5FJivIc)

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jxramos
How thick of dust on the snow pack are we talking about here precisely?

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mark-r
I'm sorry I don't have a figure for you, but it doesn't have to be very thick.
As the snow starts melting, the grime actually concentrates and becomes
darker.

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jxramos
that's a great point, sort of like pen drawing on an inflated baloon, when it
deflates the ink get super dark and concentrated.

