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This article does not address the environmental problems or global warming solutions; it concentrates on what alterations there will be to snow levels and ski weather till the end of the century.

Let’s admit it – the world is warming up at an exponential rate whether we like it or not (pardon the pun). Let’s avoid the slow, upsetting music soundtrack with the politicallly charged commentary and the occasional crash of thunder. We are not discussing the apocalypse here. I want to know about the future of ski weather and the global warming facts that may change mountain snowfall. Last winter had some of the biggest snowfalls ever – check this clip which demonstrates the current ski weather trend.

In the space of the next hundred years there could be an increase of up to 6.4°C in worldwide temperatures, which is about five times the upward swing during the whole of the last century. Many people think that snow levels will go down as rain takes over, but this is not really the case.

Let’s just take a brief and simplistic look at how the climate affects our ski weather. We’ll call rain and snow ‘precipitation’. Water vapour or hot wet air ascends from the equator, heated by the sun. This water vapour forms the vast circular weather systems in the north and south hemispheres as it cools and descends, moved along by the earth’s rotational forces.

We’ll see what goes on in the northern hemisphere. Weather systems here progress from west to east and precipitation starts as these weather systems move up and over. And the landmass we are concerned with is the west coast of America (the Rockies) and the west coast of Europe (the Alps). As we are aware, the air is pushed up over the Rockies and the Alps where it either snows or rains.

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With the climate warming up we are going to get more moisture in the weather systems coming up from the equator, so the precipitation will be higher. But will it be rain or snow?. If as we believe the temperature will be 6.5°C higher by the end of the century we can reckon that the altitude where rain changes to snow will move up a mountain roughly 1000 metres during this time. This is because the temperature drops by about 6.5°C per 1000 metres of altitude. The precipitation will be more pronounced and the rain/snow level wil be moving up the mountainside at a rate of roughly 10 metres a year.

Well, that’s it then – more snow. But it’s not that simple. What effect, for example, will the melting Greenland glaciers have on the Gulf Stream? There are other questions too, but this is the big one. Presently, this fast moving current of warm seawater, coming up from the Equator, keeps the western coast of Europe relatively warm. But thirteen thousand years ago an inland sea in Canada stopped the Gulf Stream dead when it burst its banks, dropping into the Atlantic and starting the last Ice Age in Europe. The same pattern could emerge if the accelerated melting of the Greenland glaciers pours unprecedented amounts of cold fresh water into the Gulf Stream and clunk – it switches off. Then we would have more snow than we bargained for…

For the full article and more go to Ski Jungle – Global Warming Facts