Each winter and spring, airborne dust from the Colorado plateau and the Great Basin regions settles on the snow cover in the San Juan Mountains of south-western Colorado. The dust increases the absorption of solar radiation, which dramatically accelerates snow melt. Winter and spring of 2008 in the Colorado river basin were particularly dusty, with a record-breaking nine airborne dust events. But that record was broken in the winter and spring of 2009 with a landmark 12 events, contributing to a noticeably earlier snow melt
Photograph: NASA
The Guardian
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