Ski Warming
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Few businesses are as weather dependent as ski resorts, and reports of rising global temperatures could mean trouble for the industry. Weather Notebook correspondent Jeff Rice files this story.

A government sponsored study shows that ski resorts in the northern latitudes are particularly vulnerable to global warming. Climate models predict that increased drought because of the greenhouse effect is likely to mean less snowfall, the lifeblood of ski resorts. That likely means more and more snowmaking systems in the future to compensate.

"Everyone's aware that the polar ice cap is receeding. I mean it's happening".

Peter Stearns is the director of snowmaking at Sun Valley, Idaho, which has one of the largest snowmaking systems in the world. Man-made snow has been in use there since well before scientists began predicting climate change. Peters is skeptical that we could be seeing the end of skiing as we know it. But he does say that snowmaking will hardly be a cure-all for drastic climate change.

"I think if we really thought that global warming per se was going to change the weather patterns to the point where ski areas with snowmaking were the only ones that could survive with global warming ... I think we're going to see a big selloff in ski resorts first".

That may not be so far fetched. Satellite images already show that major portions of the Alps are receiving the equivalent of a month less of snow cover than they did ten years ago. While there is fierce debate on the subject, some experts predict a rise of 3 to 5 degrees in global temperature in the next 50 years. If that's the case, it could be devastating to resorts at lower elevations, shifting snowlines as much as 2,000 feet higher than before.

Jeff Rice reports from Boise, Idaho. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory. It is supported in part by Subaru. For more on global climate change, go to our website at mountwashington.org.