The Twin Cities have only seen 16 inches of snow this year. What happens if we don't get enough?
Winter is more than halfway over, and we've definitely had our share of cold weather, but so far this season, the Twin Cities have only seen 16 inches of snow.
That's well below the three feet that has typically piled up on the ground by now. The Twin Cities averages about 51 inches of snow across the entire season.
The thick coating of snow outside can easily make you forget just how dry this winter has been. It's a repeat of last year, likely creating a repeat of side effects.
"We rely on a lot of snow for bringing in water early in the spring when it melts and that's a time when the trees are having big bursts of growth and they need that water," Jessica Savage, an associate professor of plant physiology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, said.
Consecutive years without big spring melts will slow a tree's growth. Plants with shallow roots, like those in a home garden, might die off without the insulation from snow. Plants with deeper roots, like some weeds, could thrive. It could also lessen how many seeds or fruits a plant will bear, something hungry animals would notice.
"Sometimes we think oh well, rain is rain, precipitation is precipitation, but it really matters to plants when that (precipitation) happens," Savage said.
Animals struggling to survive while others thrive stands out to Ron Moen, a senior wildlife biologist at UMD's Natural Resources Research Institute.
"You might look at the small mammals, the mice and voles, they're not doing as well now because they don't have the snow cover," Moen said.
That means predatory birds, like hawks and owls, feasting more than usual but hurting their food source in the long run.
"In one year (mice and voles) can recover, two years, they can probably recover, but three-to-four years down the road, we're going see changes in their population levels," Moen said.
Meanwhile, deer populations would grow from consistent access to food no longer hidden by snow. They also wouldn't lose as much weight since they wouldn't expel as much energy having to trudge through deep snow.
"In the winter, we tend to see water levels decrease," Jay Austin, a physics professor specializing in lake levels at UMD, said.
That's because dry, winter air speeds up evaporation. Ice can protect lake water from evaporation, but ice needs snow cover to reflect the sun's UV rays. Without snow cover, ice melts faster and sooner than usual, exposing water to evaporation.
"In the spring we get what's called a 'freshet' where that snow all melts in a relatively small amount of time," Austin said.
Not only does a melted snow from a freshet quickly replenish lake levels, but it also brings nutrients that are key to a body of water's ecology like nitrogen and phosphorus. A pattern of dry winters makes waterways more reliant on spring and summer rains to remain healthy, which in recent years have often featured an extended period of drought.
