Overview
- The study, published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, finds mountain regions warmed about 0.21°C per century faster than nearby lowlands between 1980 and 2020.
- High elevations saw measurable precipitation shifts, with roughly 11.5 mm less rain and 25.6 mm less snow per century relative to lowlands, driving a transition from snowfall to rainfall.
- Researchers link the snow-to-rain shift to greater flood risk, citing Pakistan’s 2025 monsoon where extreme mountain rainfall caused more than 1,000 deaths.
- Plants and animals are moving upslope to track cooler conditions, with species facing extinction risk once they reach terrain limits.
- Sparse high-altitude observations and coarse model resolution likely understate the pace of change, prompting calls to expand mountain monitoring networks and improve models.