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Ski Warming
Fri Jan 07, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
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.
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