3 ms·

Is it cold enough that some of this water can be preserved in the mountains using ice stupas? https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/07/07/ice-stupas-have-beco

• jaredhallen 3y ago
  Interesting concept, I haven't seen that before. Whether it would work here (I live in the Sierras) though, my guess would be probably not for two reasons. One is temperature, as you mention. Our higher mountain lakes do freeze over, but I'd expect you need colder temperatures than what we see on average for something like that. Running water typically doesn't freeze here, even during the coldest part of the Winter. The second reason is scale. Only a portion of the water that falls on the Sierras lands up high, and much of that is captured in snowpack , which is a pretty key piece of the water storage puzzle already.
  • cduzz 3y ago
    These things melt more slowly than a snow pack, making them useful for preserving water over a full growing season. I suspect there are ways to enhance the effect of letting water freeze in a column in layers. Do people make artificial snow up there? If so they can probably leverage similar techniques to make these things.