Climate Change Hits Alps Hardest

It seems that the Alps are getting more than their fair share of global warming. Météo-France’s Centre d’Etude de la Neige (incidentally the director is a PisteHors.com member) has just published a report showing that local variations can be much more extreme than average global climate change.

Over the last century average temperatures for France have risen by 1C but the temperature rise is up to 3C during the winter months at 1800 meters in the French Alps; at least according to records for the last 40 years. This temperature rise has serious implications for the many ski resorts with the majority of their slopes situated at this altitude. The effects have been exacerbated by a lack of snowfall in some regions. The Savoie has seen precipitation over the last few years at around 80% of the long term average. This means less water to feed snow canons and less days when they can be used due to warm temperatures.

The effect of warm, dry winters is most obviously seen in the mass of glaciers. After a period up to 1980 when many glaciers actually grew in length they have been in full retreat. The winters of 1989, 1993 and 2002 were particularly lacking in snow although they were surpassed by that of 1964 which saw barely a quarter of average snowfall.

The Effects of Global Warming on Skiing

Posted by davidof on Saturday, 15 January, 2005 at 10:32 PM