It wouldn't be wrong to call the drought out west California's worst-kept secret. It's hard imagining that "The Golden State" could be void of water, considering how much food it provides for the rest of the nation, but it's a harsh reality that's easily observed first-hand. Californians needn't look past their barren creeks and sunken streams to see the evidence. This causes complications in the entire region, but the damage goes far beyond the waterways. A drought-stricken California, coupled with record-breaking heat, increases the chances of wildfires — and it doesn't end there.

It's a vicious cycle, as evidenced by the clip below. A team with the NASA DEVELOP program has connected wildfires in the Sierra Nevada mountain range to drastic decreases in snowpack. At first glance, this might seem to affect winter-sport fanatics more than anyone else, but a deeper dive reveals a stark reality.

Vishal Arya is an independent contractor at NASA's Ames Research Center, and was involved with A Song of Fire and Snow: Wildfire and Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, the project that's bringing light to the impact wildfires have in the region. In an interview with Expanse, he outlined how they were able to determine the connection between high-severity wildfires, and levels of snowpack,

"We conducted several t-tests to determine if there were statistically significant differences in pre- and post-fire NDSI (Normalized Difference Snow Index) values, which we used as a proxy for snow water equivalent. Along with this, a time series fractional snow cover analysis was done in order to quantify the amount of snowpack that is decreasing in the Sierra Nevada."

Nine burn sites were chosen for analysis, and Arya says they were picked based on factors including "elevation, fire area, proportional burn severity area, [and] proximity to wilderness areas." Proximity to The Sierra Nevada was also a prerequisite.

The team hopes that the "this information will assist in decision- and policy-making related to management of forest ecosystems and water resources within the Sierra Nevada." Check out their clip below, and be sure to share it with your friends on Facebook. Let us know what you thought in the comments below!