Sierra warming: Climate change puts heat on high country

Standing atop Yosemite's tallest peak in August 1950, Hal Klieforth looked out across the Lyell glacier and marveled at how solid and unyielding it appeared.

"It was like Grand Canyon or the Sierra itself," the 81-year-old meteorologist said recently. "It had been there for many years and probably would be there for many more."

Today, as the boulder-strewn sheet of ice recedes in the summer sun, Klieforth is no longer so confident. "Now I guess there might be more people making a pilgrimage to these glaciers before they go," he said.

No longer is climate change a distant drama of shrinking polar ice caps. As year-round ice fades from the saw-toothed summits of the Sierra Nevada, as Klieforth and others watch a world change in their lifetimes, it's clear an unwelcome reality is at our doorstep: Global warming is local warming.

http://www.sacbee.com/741/story/1128709.html