Idaho Dust Storm Speeds Up Snowmelt: ‘Nobody On Our Staff Has Ever Witnessed Anything Similar’

A wind storm earlier this month covered a southwestern Idaho mountain range with dust from Oregon and Nevada and accelerated snowmelt due to the darker surface absorbing heat from the sun as opposed to being reflected by pristine white snow, scientists say.

Dust covers slopes of snow in Owyhee Mountains, March 8, 2013. Credit: USDA.

Another day, another amplifying feedback of Dust-Bowlification. The Idaho Statesman reports:

A dust storm that covered the mountains accelerated runoff at the end of winter, exposing scientists to a strange event.

Scientists say the storm on March 6 caused unprecedented melting. The dust-on-snow show came during five hours of wind that averaged 34 miles per hour and gusted up to 57 mph on ridgelines at the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in the northern Owyhee Mountains.

Hydrologists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture research area then observed accelerated melting from March 10 to March 16, when a new dusting of snow covered the layer of dirty snow.

“Nobody on our staff has ever witnessed anything similar,” said research hydrologist Adam Winstral.

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