Due to climate change, winter remains snow-free

2024-03-14 06:35:10

At the end of the century, the natural snow cover could disappear completely in one of eight ski areas. “Climate change is significantly changing the patterns of natural snowfall, which has strong but different consequences for ski areas worldwide,” said Veronika Mitterwallner, researcher at the University of Bayreuth in the Chair of Sports Ecology. For a study on snow cover, she evaluated data from seven major mountain regions where winter sports are practiced, including the Alps, the Andes, the Appalachians in the USA, the Australian Alps, the Japanese Alps, the Rocky Mountains and the Southern Alps in New Zealand. The analysis is now in the specialist journal “PLOS ONE” appeared.

“In all major ski regions, a substantial decrease in the number of days with natural snow cover is expected under every emission scenario evaluated,” Mitterwallner continued. According to the analysis, the decrease is particularly strong at lower altitudes.

Ski tourism at high altitudes

The expected consequence: ski tourism is moving further to higher altitudes – with serious effects on alpine plants and animals. Ski lift operators could resort to artificial snowmaking, but the economic profitability of many ski resorts worldwide would still decline, the study says.

Since the areas that can still be used in the future are likely to be further away from heavily populated areas, new infrastructure and further interventions in nature are needed. High mountain species that are already endangered could be particularly affected.

Mitterwallner and the other researchers examined the effects of climate change on the annual natural snow cover in seven areas with a lot of ski activity – 69 percent of the regions examined were in the European Alps, the largest global ski market.

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If greenhouse gas emissions remain high, 13 percent of ski resorts are expected to have completely lost their natural snow cover by the end of the century. In this case, 20 percent will have less than half as many days with closed snow cover by the end of the century compared to the historical baseline. Accordingly, snow days in the Alps in Europe will decrease by almost half by around 2070. The Australian Alps are expected to lose most of the snow days, up to three quarters.