Oregon Public Broadcasting

There's further confirmation that climate change is affecting the Northwest now.

A new Department of Interior report says three "benchmark" glaciers in Washington State and Alaska are melting -- and fast.

The representative icefields include South Cascade Glacier in Washington's Skagit County. Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

The U.S. Geological Survey now has fifty years worth of detailed measurements from the three glaciers.

That's the longest timescale for any glaciers in North America.

USGS researcher Ed Josberger says the measurements of length, ice thickness, and mass provide some of the most solid evidence that climate change is hitting home.

Ed Josberger: “A fifty year record is certainly confirming there is global warming going on.”

Glaciologists have shorter records on half a dozen other glaciers in the Cascade Range besides their benchmark one in North Cascades National Park. The others are showing the same response of accelerated melting.

There is one Northwest glacier that's growing. Josberger says Crater Glacier on Mount St. Helens is a “special circumstance.” The new glacier formed after the 1980 eruption, which created a large and shady crater.

Online:

Time-Lapse Video Showing Shrinkage of South Cascade Glacier

USGS Report: Fifty-Year Record of Glacier Change Reveals Shifting Climate in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska