The surge of snowmelt was greatly reduced by dams upstream.
There was only the hiss of the fire and the drip of snowmelt coming through the roof.
In summer, in a zone centred around 60° N, greater dryness might occur due to an earlier end of snowmelt.
On sunny days, millions of gallons of snowmelt filter down through the glacier, raising the water pressure where it meets the rock.
They saw mountains of ice and rivers of snowmelt, William Sheehan writes in his 1996 book, "The Planet Mars: A History of Observation and Discovery".
In the spring, they wake and swim up through the trickle of snowmelt to the surface, dividing and photosynthesizing as they go.
In areas of mountainous and continental climate, thanks to the runoff of snowmelt, the rivers are highest in spring and early summer.
I witnessed that on Torgersen Island, where half a dozen eggs in Colony 19-A rested at the bottom of two murky ponds of snowmelt, about six inches deep.
To capture food, the animals can anchor themselves in the ice and dangle their mouths into streams of snowmelt; they eat pollen, the spores of ferns, and snow algae.
My plan was to ski them both the next day, but when I awoke to the sound of snowmelt dripping from the roof, I knew I had to beat the clock.
"The snowmelt in eastern North Dakota and Minnesota is over, but there is still a lot of snowmelt in western North Dakota and Montana so there is still some concern there," said Pat Slattery, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
