Alpine slopes face snow shortages in unseasonably warm winter

Only the UK, Ireland, Norway, Italy and the south-east Mediterranean didn't have record highs - ITV News' Sejal Karia has the latest

Sparse snowfall and unseasonably warm winter weather in Europe’s central mountains are allowing grass to blanket hillsides across the region, causing headaches for ski slope operators.

Patches of grass, rock and dirt were visible in some of Europe’s skiing meccas - like Innsbruck in Austria, Villars-sur-Ollon and Crans-Montana in Switzerland, and Germany’s Lenggries and far beyond.

The lack of snow has revived concerns about temperature upheaval linked to climate change.

On a swath stretching from France to Poland, but with the Alps at the centre, many parts of Europe were enjoying short-sleeve weather.

A weather map showed Poland racking up daily highs in the double digits Celsius - or more than 10 degrees Celsius - in recent days.

It’s a sharp contrast to the frigid weather and blizzards in parts of the United States late last year.

Swiss state forecaster MeteoSuisse pointed to some of the hottest temperatures ever this time of year.

A weather station in Delemont, in the Jura range on the French border, already hit a record average daily temperature of 18.1 degrees Celsius on the first day of the year, over 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record high for January.

Other cities and towns followed suit with records.

MeteoSuisse stated on its blog: “... this turn of the new year could almost make you forget that it's the height of winter.”

Forecaster Anick Haldimann of MeteoSuisse said a persistent weather system that brought in warmer air from the west and southwest has lingered, locking in warmer temperatures expected to last through the week. While slopes above 2,000 metres have gotten snow, lower down, “the order of the day is patience” for skiing buffs, she said.

The shortage has been particularly burdensome around Switzerland’s Adelboden, which is set to host World Cup skiing on Saturday, and generally draws around 25,000 fans for a single day of racing.

Resorts like these look for such races to offer up bucolic wintertime images to draw amateur skiers, but grassy, brown sides to the course can mar the landscape - and dampen the appeal.

Course director Toni Hadi acknowledged that the race will be run on 100% artificial snow this year.

“The climate is a bit changing but what should we do here? Shall we stop with life?” he said by phone, noting that other challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic and war show “life is not easy” these days.

“Everything is difficult - not only to prepare a ski slope,” Hadi said.

The start to 2023 picked up where many countries had already left off: Last year was the hottest on record in both Switzerland and France.

More broadly, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation says the past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record.

Next door in France, national weather agency Meteo France said 2022 ended with some of the warmest weather the country has ever experienced at this time of year - capping an exceptionally warm year that saw temperature records broken and rampant forest fires and drought conditions.

Meteo France says the southern Alps and, in the northern Alps, slopes above 2,200 metres, have seen close to normal snowfalls. But snow is notably lacking at lower altitudes in the northern Alps and across the Pyrenees, it said.

Early in the ski season, fortunes looked bright for snow lovers: In France, freezing weather into mid-December raised hopes that ski resorts in the Alps, the Pyrenees and elsewhere might see plenty of early snow and the lasting subzero temperatures needed to keep runs open.

But exceptionally warm weather followed, prompting some resorts at lower altitudes to close down as snow cover melted away.

Germany too has seen unusually spring like temperatures - as high as 16 degrees Celsius in parts of the country on Monday.

New Year’s Eve is believed to have been the warmest since reliable records began.

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