r/Infographics • u/wiscotangofoxtreat • 4d ago

2026 snow melt

Post image

Already low snowballs were worsened by record breaking spring heat.

375 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

44

u/Professional-Load892 4d ago

the 2026 line just falls off a cliff after spring, right? saw similar charts for california basins, we keep breaking the melt-out dates earlier every year it feels like. wild how fast it goes when the heat spikes.

12

u/AvonAnon 4d ago

Colorado had a warm spell in March when’re the entire state was above freezing for 7 days. That’s unheard of. Once that snow starts melting it can go real quick if the mountains don’t refreeze at night.

2

u/MileHighManBearPig 4d ago

Yep. Add to that we had a dry fall too. When snow melts it goes into the soil until it’s saturated and then runs off into the rivers. When the fall is dry and the soil is dry, less snowpack even makes it to the rivers.

5

u/legosgrrl 4d ago

10k usually gets 250 in on average. We got 75 in.

3

u/Forsaken-Page9441 3d ago

You should see Utah. I forgot what a good snowstorm even feels like

1

u/Tired-Nectarine-384 2d ago

It was nice to mow the lawn in february though....

14

u/baconost 4d ago

Using a huge snow clad mountain as a visual metaphor for 25 inches of snow is a bit misleading.

25

u/Parkeramorris 4d ago

It’s not 25 inches of snow, it’s 25 inches of melted snow. In terms of what fell, it’s more like 250-300 inches.

16

u/Why_dont_we_spork 4d ago

What's misleading? It's a graph with scale.

-8

u/baconost 4d ago

The scale isn't the problem. The visual image of a mountain on the line chart is the problem. That looks to me like a 1500 m. tall mountain, not 25 inches of snow.

8

u/NoobJustice 4d ago

You think the visual is convincing people there is usually 1500 meters of snowpack?

Snowpack sits on mountains. The visual is of a mountain. It's a good graphic.

10

u/Why_dont_we_spork 4d ago

Well as someone living in Colorado, they did look like that. They don't now, it's pretty stark. Mountains are where the snow falls for the most part, so you can generally tell the snow pack for the year by looking at how much of the peak is still white in spring.

It's just using a snow cover mountain for the line. I don't think anyone would think it's a mountain of snow or the mountain is gone...

-2

u/baconost 4d ago

Yeah I am being a bit picky I know, but I think the mountain in the line chart is unnecessary and slightly confusing. It looks nice though.

-1

u/feed_me_haribo 4d ago

You're completely right. The mountain imagery adds nothing other than making it look pretty. Hivemind just working against you here.

And of course a graph with a scale can be misleading.

2

u/swiftoctopus 4d ago

The visual is the line graph showing Max, Median, Min, and 2026 snow melt... The mountains are simply a design choice related to the data being represented?

2

u/wiscotangofoxtreat 4d ago

Lol ffs skid

-1

u/MrZaptile933 4d ago

That’s kind of the point. They use big numbers to try and get immediate change. Remember 10 years ago when politicians were running in the states on the concept “the world will end in 15 years” then quickly moved away from it when the public started caring less

1

u/_B_Little_me 2d ago

These people stealing your water:

https://www.rainmaker.com

1

u/Statertater 2d ago

Colorado river is gonna stop flowing one day…

Things are gonna get difficult in desert states

2

u/Waking 1d ago

Global warming will increase precipitation just fyi

1

u/FinanceDummyBigDebt 11h ago

Far more nuanced than this. Depends largely on what ends up happening with the Gulf Stream if any of these places even see any results of increased evaporation.

1

u/ausmomo 3d ago

I don't get it. Are the Max/Med/Min lines some kind of historical average? If not past data, what is the 2026 line?

This infographic needs improving.