As far as winter sports enthusiasts are concerned their favorite winter resort will always have that deep natural snow cover. Always. Period.
Will climate change prove them wrong? Studies have shown that this might very well be the case.
Climate Change and Snow
The relationship between climate change and the basic science on how snow is formed is fairly simple. The increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans causes more water to evaporate into the atmosphere and warmer air holds more water than cooler air. In fact, with each 1 degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit of warming, the air’s water-holding capacity increases by 7 percent. When the air is warm, it becomes supersaturated with water which brings about torrential rainfall followed by flooding. If it’s cold enough, snow would fall instead.
Less Snow, More Snow
Is it the end of snow?
According to scientific studies, that may very well be the case if global warming persists. And it has a very high chance of occurring based on the report made by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The average temperature around the world increased by 0.8 degree Celsius or 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, much of it in the recent decades. Melting snow off mountaintops is a reality. A good example is Montana’s Glacier National Park which had 150 glaciers in 1910 but is now down to 27 glaciers. Back in the 1800’s, the total glacier volume of the European Alps was at 230 cubic kilometer. It is now down to one-third the original amount.
If less snow is expected, why is there an intensification of the snowfall extremes in some parts of the world? The answer is, again, climate change.
In February of 2015, an epic blizzard hit New England. Climate scientists explain that the main cause of this blizzard is the fact that it is winter. Remember the “warm air sucking up a lot of water”? Since it was winter time, these mega-loads of sucked-up water turned into snow and got dumped in heavy and intense deluges.
The blizzard that hit Buffalo, New York in 2014 accounting for 8 feet of snow was supposedly caused by the “lake effect”. Typically occurring between the months of November and February, the “lake effect” snow event happens when cooler air passes over a warm body of water, takes up the water, freezes it, moves toward where the wind is blowing and dumps the snow as soon as it hits land. In the case of the Buffalo blizzard, the warm body of water was Lake Erie. Days after the lake effect snow event, warmer temperature took over the area which caused the rapid melting of the snow which, in turn, caused minor flooding.
Whichever way the wind (or warm air) blows, winter resort operators have to deal with a lot of challenges ahead of them.
For the Less Snow scenario, the obvious solution is to make your own snow which could prove to be very expensive and detrimental to the environment. The first major resource needed is water. Seventy-five thousand (75,000) gallons of water are needed to cover a 200 x 200 foot area with 6 inches of snow. To cut on costs, some resorts would re-use the run-off water from the slopes collected in the reservoirs. This practice, if not done responsibly, may cause soil erosion and soil pollution due to the contaminants that the water encounters in the run-off. Next would be power consumption. A large air compressing pump requires a lot of energy. Likewise, the water pump system uses, more often than not, diesel fuel which contributes to air pollution. Last but not the least in the expense department is labor cost. Another solution is a bit less expensive but more labor-intensive. Resort operators in the Austrian Alps have resorted to covering snow fields with white fleece to delay the melting of the snow.
In the More Snow scenario, a blizzard is the star of the show and it brings with it lots and lots of snow which, in some cases, is nothing to be happy about. It translates to cancelled flights, collapsed roofs, downed lifts, avalanches, resort personnel unable to go to work and a lot of other things which cost money.
At the end of the day, the cost of meeting these challenges would impact on the end-users, the winter sports enthusiasts. That’s right, you guys. If you love to ski or snowboard then it is time to start thinking about the small things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment.