Spanish ski resorts will suffer from a recurring lack of snow in the coming years due to climate change and, if they can maintain their activity, they will depend on the snow produced with cannons. This is stated in the first piece of research that analyzes the effects of climate change on the ski sector on a European scale, presented this Monday in Nature Climate Change.
The research, led by the Grenoble Alpes University (France), has modeled the snowfall that will be recorded in the 2,234 European ski resorts based on how much the global average temperature increases in the coming years. So far, temperatures have risen by about 1.2 degrees since 1850, but warming has accelerated in recent decades and now exceeds 0.25 degrees per decade with no sign of slowing down.
If global warming stagnates at two degrees, 27% of the currently existing ski resorts in Europe will cease to be viable, even with snow cannons. If the warming reaches four degrees, 71% will cease to be viable.
The ones that will resist the best, indicates the investigation, will be those of Iceland and Scandinavia, followed, in this order, by those of the French Alps, those of Switzerland and those of Austria.
At the other extreme, the ones that will be most difficult to maintain their activity are those of the Iberian Peninsula (not counting the Pyrenees) and those of the Apennines in Italy, since the conditions for producing snow with cannons will not exist if the warming it reaches 1.5 degrees (the target set by the Paris Agreement, which is not on track to be met).
In the Pyrenees, the researchers estimate that the risk of a recurring lack of snow will be between moderate and high with a global temperature increase of two degrees. For any increase greater than three degrees, the risk of not being able to have snow in the stations, not even produced with cannons, is considered very high.
