RAPID CITY, S.D.(WNAX)- Continued climate change may lead to a drop in snowpack runoff into the Missouri River system.

Darren Clabo, a meteorologist at the School of Mines in Rapid City, says more of that precipitation will fall as rain rather than snow.

Clabo says heavy rain events can occur, causing rapid rises in river reaches.

Clabo says much of the state west of the James River has been seeing rainfall decrease.

The Colorado River basin is seeing the rapid effects of less snowpack and runoff into that system.