His words lodged in my mind through the long, slow days of spring snowmelt.
The Danube draws upon a series of right-bank Alpine tributaries, which, through reliance on spring and summer snowmelt, make its regime notably uneven.
The hydrology of the Sutlej is controlled by spring and summer snowmelt in the Himalayas and by the South Asian monsoon.
Calcium compounds are leached downward by the spring snowmelt but are drawn upward in summer and become concentrated in a lime-rich horizon beneath the humus layer.
The Dniester, the rapidly flowing main artery, is navigable almost throughout the republic; the river becomes swollen by spring snowmelt from the Carpathians and by heavy summer rains.
In addition, small facilities harness the energy of western rivers such as the Kaxgar (Kashgar), Ak-Say, and Aksu in spate from summer snowmelt.
The Rhône River achieves a steady flow throughout the year, deriving a high input from the Cévennes Mountains which experience heavy winter rain plus abundant spring and summer snowmelt from the Alps via Lake Geneva.
At low altitudes some rivers exhibit a peak during a high precipitation period in winter and then a second peak associated with a subsequent spring snowmelt that feeds the nearby high-altitude tributaries.
Its longest rivers, the Vistula and the Oder, drain regions that have a temperate continental climate; they have low evaporation rates and become swollen by spring snowmelt, thus further reducing the salinity of the Baltic.
But Alwash told me that nearly everyone outside the Iraqi government who has examined the dam believes that time is running out: in the spring, snowmelt flows into the Tigris, putting immense pressure on the retaining wall.
Since World War II most scientific exploration has been of an applied nature, with a focus on harnessing irrigation water from the summer snowmelt, geomorphological research into slope stability near transportation routes, and biogeographic field research aimed at increasing the productivity of grasslands and forests.
