Post by : Meena Ariff

Much less winter snow is falling across the Himalayas, leaving many peaks bare and rocky during a season when they should be covered in snow, meteorologists say. Over the past five years, snowfall has consistently fallen below the long-term average recorded between 1980 and 2020.

Rising temperatures are causing the limited snow that does fall to melt quickly. Lower-elevation regions are also seeing more rain instead of snow, a change attributed partly to global warming. Scientists now describe this trend as a “snow drought” affecting large parts of the Himalayan region.

The accelerated melting of glaciers due to rising temperatures has long been a major concern for India’s Himalayan states and neighboring countries. Experts warn that the decline in winter snowfall is worsening this crisis. Reduced snow and ice not only change the appearance of the mountains but also impact millions of people and fragile ecosystems that rely on these water sources.

Winter snowpack gradually melts in spring, feeding rivers that provide drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower. A drop in snowfall threatens this supply. Reduced winter precipitation also increases the risk of forest fires due to drier conditions.

Glaciers and snow also act as natural stabilizers for the mountains. Their disappearance contributes to more frequent natural disasters, including rockfalls, landslides, glacial lake outbursts, and debris flows.

Meteorologists emphasize that this decline in snowfall is not a one-time occurrence. The Indian Meteorological Department reported almost no rainfall or snowfall across northern India in December. From January to March, many parts of northwest India—including Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh—are expected to receive up to 86% less precipitation than the long-period average (LPA).

LPA measures rainfall and snowfall over 30–50 years to classify current weather as normal, excess, or deficient. North India’s LPA between 1971 and 2020 was 184.3 millimeters.

“This decrease in winter precipitation is visible across multiple datasets,” said Kieran Hunt, principal research fellow in tropical meteorology at the University of Reading, UK. His 2025 study, covering 1980–2021, highlighted a decline in winter precipitation across the western and central Himalayas.

Using ERA-5 reanalysis datasets, Hemant Singh, a research fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology in Jammu, reported that snowfall in the northwestern Himalayas has fallen by 25% over the past five years compared to the 1980–2020 average.

Nepal, home to the central Himalayas, has also experienced significant declines. “There has been almost no rainfall since October, and this winter appears set to remain largely dry. This pattern has been consistent over the last five years,” said Binod Pokharel, associate professor at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.

While occasional winters have seen heavy snowfall in isolated areas, these are extreme events rather than the steady, evenly distributed snowfalls typical of previous decades, meteorologists added.