The Swiss resort town of Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis may lose its natural snowy slopes by the end of the 21st century due to global warming. This was reported by the press service of the University of Basel.
Current climate models predict more winter precipitation in coming years, but as rain rather than snow. Despite this, investments in the ski business continue, including the expansion of Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis, one of Switzerland’s most famous resorts.
Erika Hiltbrunner of the University of Basel and her colleagues decided to calculate how difficult it would be to provide ski conditions at this resort, with or without artificial snow. The team collected data on the characteristics of the slopes, where and when snow formed at the ski resort, and how much water. Next, they built a model based on current climate forecasts and software to calculate snow conditions.
According to the results, the use of technical snow can indeed guarantee a 100-day ski season in the higher parts of the ski resort (at altitudes of 1800 meters and above). However, due to insufficient cold weather in the weeks leading up to and during Christmas, things are likely to be disrupted during the Christmas holidays in the years ahead. The researchers say that powerful snowballs may alleviate the situation somewhat, but will not completely solve the problem.
“Many people don’t realize that making snow requires certain weather conditions,” the scientists say. “The weather should not be too hot or too humid, otherwise there won’t be enough evaporative cooling for the sprayed water to freeze in the air and fall as snow.” The researchers’ calculations show that water consumption for snowmaking will increase significantly by around 80% for the resort as a whole. Thus, the average winter water consumption, which is 300 million liters today, will be around 540 million liters by the end of the century.