While we in Colorado have had an exceptionally good snow year, Europe is crying the climate change blues:
Alpine skiing and snowboarding may be under greater threat from climate change than scientists have previously thought, new research suggests.
A study of snowfall spanning 60 years has indicated that the Alps's entire winter sports industry could grind to a halt through lack of snow.
It found a dramatic "step-like" drop in snowfall at the end of the 1980s which has never recovered, New Scientist magazine reported. The average number of snow days over the last 20 winters is lower than at any time since records began more than 100 years ago.
We're confused, not only about how climate change can cause heavy snowfall in one part of the world while limiting it elsewhere, but at the same time be blamed for deadly avalanches:
Figures for the 2006/07 season show that more than 50 people died in off-piste avalanches in French Alps alone - at least 20 more than average.
Climate change has been identified as one of the factors; warmer conditions cause snow to melt, making it more unstable and prone to sliding down the mountain.
Here in Colorado, the trend line for avalanche deaths is down over the last four reported years. If the global warming theory held, one would expect that the number of deaths last year would have declined steeply because of the high snowfall, and it did. The problem with trying to use deaths as an indicator of global warming is that more skiers are using safety equipment including avalanche beacons.
Colorado State University observes:
Of the approximate 2,000 avalanches reported to the Avalanche Center in an average winter, more than 80 percent occur during or just after large snowstorms."
Have you noticed that anything that happens in the world can be and is blamed on global warming?
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