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No Snow = Bummer European Ski Season

by Neil Woodburn (RSS feed) on Jan 18th 2007 at 8:03AM

This is usually the time of year where we post about all the wonderful ski areas around the world where one can hurl down mountainsides of snow and powder and truly embrace the winter season.

Unfortunately, ski season hasn't really arrived in Europe this winter.

Austria, Italy, Switzerland and other legendary winter playgrounds are suffering from a desperate lack of the white stuff; almost no snow has fallen. This is because Europe is experiencing its warmest winter on record. It's so warm, in fact, that resorts can't even make artificial snow in many cases. When the temperature does drop, resorts frantically pump out as much artificial snow as they can but this hasn't been enough to prevent a number of Ski World Cup races from being canceled or postponed throughout the region--including the one that was supposed to be held in Chaminox this weekend.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times documents the impact that such a sorry season is having on the resorts in Italy. As you might imagine, the financial impact has been difficult to swallow and resorts are losing money very quickly.

Is this heat wave an anomaly, or yet another indication of global warming? I think the signs are obvious, yet there are those who continue to challenge the growing mound of evidence which suggest the conditions in Europe this season will only continue to get worse.

Filed under: Activism, Skiing, Europe, Italy