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Better ski conditions beckon attendees at the World Economic Forum at Davos this year thanks to recent heavy snowfalls at the high-altitude resort, where climate change ranks after security, growth and AI among the four major themes being discussed.
While the town had about 80cm of snow at the bottom ski lift on Friday compared to 55cm on average for January, Davos-based climate scientist Christoph Marty, at the WSL Institute of Snow and Avalanche Research, said that at ski towns just a few kilometres away it was a different story.
“We have above average snow in Davos, but if you go 12km lower down, you have below average [snow coverage]. It shows how vulnerable the snowpack is to temperature [rise],” said Marty.
Switzerland, like other Alpine areas around the world, is dealing with rising temperatures linked to climate change. Average temperatures in the Alps have risen almost 2C from pre-industrial levels, the Research Center for Alpine Ecosystems estimates.
This is higher than the long-term global average of at least 1.1C, with the rise amplified in mountain regions as warmth leads to shrinkage in areas covered with ice and snow, which reflect the sun’s rays. Instead, the dark rock and later vegetation absorb the sun’s heat and contribute to even more melting.
Following a wet start to winter, snow conditions in Europe at higher elevations have been more favourable in the past week after an Arctic blast brought fresh snow.
However, at lower altitudes in Italy, France and Switzerland, it remains patchy and precipitation is falling as rain.
About half an hour’s drive from Davos at the village of Küblis — altitude 815m versus Davos at 1,560m — the snow depth this season was 8cm compared to the long-term average of 16cm, Marty said.
Overall snow cover in Switzerland has fallen almost 8 percentage points when comparing three-year averages straddling the 2002-2003 to 2004-2005 seasons with the 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 seasons, according to FT analysis of National Snow and Ice Data Center data.
The data shows that snow cover has fallen significantly across much of central and eastern Europe in particular.
In the Alpine region, the average decline in snow cover was about 4.3 percentage points.
According to a study published in Nature last year, the number of snow days in the Alps has fallen more in the past 20 years than over the previous 600.
Marco Carrer, a professor at the University of Padova and an author of the research, said the study used growth rings on juniper bushes to reveal the extent of persistent snow cover over centuries. The intervals of the rings show the duration of the current snowpack cover in the Alps is 36 days shorter than the long-term mean.
The research found that for about 500 years, snow cover was “more or less stable”, he said. But since the 1900s, this has changed dramatically, particularly over the past two decades. The decline in persistent snow days was entirely related to climate change, he said.
Even on days with heavy snowfall, the lack of permanence was a problem. “As the temperature is warming the snow is melting faster. There is an absolute connection with climate change.”
For the many who rely on Alpine snow melt for water supplies during the summer, the fall-off in snow coverage was particularly worrying, leaving those areas at risk of droughts and water shortages, he said.
The most recent study published in Nature this month found that human-induced global warming had caused declines in Northern Hemisphere snowpack in spring over the 1981—2020 period, including in areas where snow is crucial for water supplies.
A snowpack in spring is important for ensuring a supply of drinking and irrigation water, but this can be affected by early melts.
The naturally occurring El Niño weather phenomenon, which began last year and contributes to the warming of the Pacific Ocean, can also affect European snowfall, potentially leading to a colder, snowier winter.
Marty, who has been studying Davos’s snow for two decades, said despite the higher altitude, the Alpine town had experienced some “snow-poor winters” in recent years, including a Christmas where the town and valley were “not white”.
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