There are both, but we have many lower mountains that rarely get snow, let alone snow pack, but they have seasonal streams that can be quite large at the bottom of the water shed.
A decent example would be the French creek watershed by Nanaimo. I think it’s estimated that only 15% of the flow is from snow, with most of that portion flowing during spring. The rest is rain, mostly from higher up in the watershed.
This watershed doesn’t dry up entirely, but it naturally reduces dramatically by July with many of its tributaries vanishing completely. There are many like it without that 15% melt water, some of which mostly vanish under the bed rock and gravel depositions along the creek beds.
Unfortunately that’s also increasingly true, and it’s causing all kinds of species to die in watersheds that previously even supported multiple seasons of salmon runs. The last paper I read on French Creek suggested even swamps in the watershed were drying too much, killing insects and amphibians. Many streams have lost entire salmon runs due to drying too much, too often. It’s a fragile system. It seems like deforestation plays a major role in these watersheds drying out.
A decent example would be the French creek watershed by Nanaimo. I think it’s estimated that only 15% of the flow is from snow, with most of that portion flowing during spring. The rest is rain, mostly from higher up in the watershed.
This watershed doesn’t dry up entirely, but it naturally reduces dramatically by July with many of its tributaries vanishing completely. There are many like it without that 15% melt water, some of which mostly vanish under the bed rock and gravel depositions along the creek beds.
Unfortunately that’s also increasingly true, and it’s causing all kinds of species to die in watersheds that previously even supported multiple seasons of salmon runs. The last paper I read on French Creek suggested even swamps in the watershed were drying too much, killing insects and amphibians. Many streams have lost entire salmon runs due to drying too much, too often. It’s a fragile system. It seems like deforestation plays a major role in these watersheds drying out.