Snowmelt can exacerbate nutrient runoff because it produces a large volume of water that moves across the landscape in a short period of time. As the snowpack warms and melts, it washes over fields, storage areas, and bare soil, picking up nitrogen and phosphorus that have accumulated over the winter.
Since frozen or saturated ground cannot absorb much water, the nutrient-laden meltwater tends to flow quickly toward ditches and streams. Rapid warming events can intensify this effect by releasing meltwater before the ground has thawed, creating a direct path for nutrients to be transported into nearby waterways.
