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Ski Warming
Tue Dec 30, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
I'm Bryan Yeaton with The Weather Notebook's weekly climate change story. Few businesses are
as weather dependent as ski resorts, and reports of rising global temperatures could mean
trouble for the industry. Jeff Rice files this story.
A government sponsored study shows that ski resorts in the northern latitudes are particularly
vulnerable to global warming. Climate models predict that increased drought because of the
greenhouse effect is likely to mean less snowfall, the lifeblood of ski resorts. That likely
means more and more snowmaking systems in the future to compensate.
"Everyone's aware that the polar ice cap is receding. I mean it's happening."
Peter Stearns is the director of snowmaking at Sun Valley, Idaho, which has one of the largest
snowmaking systems in the world. Man-made snow has been in use there since well before
scientists began predicting climate change. Stearns is skeptical that we could be seeing the
end of skiing as we know it. But he does say that snowmaking will hardly be a cure-all for
drastic climate change.
"I think if we really thought that global warming per se was going to change the weather
patterns to the point where ski areas with snowmaking were the only ones that could survive
with global warming ... I think we're going to see a big selloff in ski resorts
first."
That may not be so far-fetched. Satellite images already show that major portions of the Alps
are receiving the equivalent of a month less of snow cover than they did 10 years ago. While
there is fierce debate on the subject, some experts predict a rise of 3 to 5 degrees in global
temperature in the next 50 years. If that's the case, it could be devastating to resorts at
lower elevations, shifting snowlines as much as 2,000 feet higher than before.
Jeff Rice reports from Boise, Idaho. Our show is supported in part by Subaru of America and
the National Science Foundation.
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