Ever decreasing Snow Water Volume – Evidence from Italy

This year again: strong snow water deficit compared to the last decade, even -64% over Italy. (https://www.cimafoundation.org/en/news/snow-a-worsening-situation-for-italy/), Figure 1)

CIMA Foundation is closely monitoring the snow situation over Italy using S3M (https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/639/2023/), a real-time operational tool to estimate snow water resources using models, satellite data, and ground measurements. The snow monitoring is becoming even more important due to climate change. A recent study published on Nature demonstrated that the absence of snowmelt in spring and early summer 2022 was a key factor in the summer drought and emergency measures (https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01222-z).