Poor start to Winter 2006

Meteo France has issued the following statement on the snow cover as at the end of November 2006.

Snow cover is currently very poor in both the French Alps and Pyrénées. In the Alps there is just a few cm of snow from 2000 meters altitude. At 2400 meters in the Northern Alps snow cover varies between 10 to 25 cm and 0 to 15cm in the Southern Alps. At 3000 meters there is rarely more than 15 to 30cm of snow. Snow cover in the Pyrénées is better. Starting from 1800m by 2400 meters there is 25 to 30cm of snow in the west and center of the massif, 0 to 20cm in the east.

Apart from the Western and Central Pyrenees where the deficit is less marked these figures are 2 to 3 times less than average. This situation is not rare. At the monitoring site at the col de Porte in the Chartreuse (1320m) there have been 11 beginnings of December since 1960 with no snow cover. The lack of snow is a combination of warm temperatures and lack of significant precipitation.

At Villard-de-Lans (1050 m - Vercors) the temperatures during the autumn were 3°C above average, a record since measures were first taken in 1959. Precipitation was lacking in both October and November. Months when snow normally falls at altitude. In the alps the deficit varies between 40 to 60% depending on the range. In the Pyrenees the deficit was not significant.

Records show that snow cover in mid-mountain areas, where most resorts have the bottom of their runs has decreased by 50% since 1960 and there are two months less snow cover during the winter season.