Tuesday April 23, 2024
Redding Record Searchlight —
For the past two years, Mt. Shasta has emerged from winter covered in thick blankets of white snow that conceal what decades of drought have done to the Northern California mountain’s ancient glaciers.
The seasonal snows come and go on the 14,179-foot peak. For hundreds of years, the glaciers have clung to the mountain’s steep slopes, slowly changing and moving over time.
But for the past few decades, droughts and periods of abnormally warm weather have caused the glaciers to shrink.
Scientists have studied the glaciers and documented their demise as climate change — with its warmer temperatures and dearth of snow — has slowly caused Mt. Shasta’s glacial masses to dwindle, especially during the 2020-22 drought.