Soot from industrial and automotive sources that falls on the snow-covered mountains of the western U.S. and Canada is causing the snowpacks to melt as much as a month earlier in spring, according to a new study.

The trend may create additional challenges for hydroelectric generation, fisheries and irrigation, which are also grappling with greenhouse gas-caused climate change.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that soot absorbs sunlight somewhat like an asphalt surface, warming the snow and air just above it by up to 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 0.7 degrees Celsius), melting the snow.

Writing for an upcoming issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research — Atmospheres, report co-author William Gustafson said that the Cascades have lost 60 percent of their snowpack since the 1950s.

The study was in part an attempt to determine how much soot contributed to that melt.

"If we can project the future — how much water we'll be getting from the rivers and when — then we can better plan for its many uses," said climate physics scientist Yun Qian. “Snowmelt can be up to 75 percent of the water supply, in some regions. These changes can affect the water supply, as well as aggravate winter flooding and summer droughts.”

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