Shocking satellite images have revealed grimy brown hills surrounding pristine, snow-covered ski resorts as record-breaking January temperatures hit across Europe.
Low snowfall and unusually warm winter weather have disappointed skiers and holidaymakers hoping for a white winter trip to Europe’s lower mountain resorts.
Instead they are facing patches of grass, along with stones and dirt Some resorts were forced to close..
Many countries have already broken new January temperature records as a wave-like pattern in the jet stream brought warm air further south, exacerbated by human-caused global warming.
A weather station at Delamont in the Jura range on the border with France already set a new January temperature record of 18.1C (about 65F) on the first day of the year, 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than the previous record.
Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said: “There are eight countries across Europe that have broken their January records and a few of them have outright broken them – not just a few. [tenths of] Degrees
“In Poland, it broke that record by four degrees. That’s a huge amount.”
Poland’s capital Warsaw saw 18.9C (66F) on Sunday, 4C above the previous average. Other countries with new January records are Belarus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia and the Netherlands.
Unseasonably high temperatures follow. Record breaking heat in EuropeAnd A record year for Britain.
Read more: Seven extreme weather records to be broken in 2022
But extreme heat in winter has a very different outcome than in summer, Professor Bentley said.
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Europe’s mid-winter heat wave
In the summer months, extreme heat will bring “a dramatic increase in mortality,” he said.
But in the winter, “the impacts are greater with the impact on the ski industry – hence, the lack of snow – and on the water supply – hence, the disappearance of glaciers – but also the lack of water, due to drought at higher altitudes.” Evaporation increases. Temperature.”
While snow has fallen on the slopes above 2,000m, only two runs are currently open in low-altitude Morzine, with Ax 3 Domaines forced to close on Saturday after a few weeks.
Professor Bentley said there was “very high confidence” that climate change was making such extreme heat events more frequent and breaking more records.
“And they tend to be longer events where they don’t just last a few days, they can last for weeks on end.”
Skiers cross a small layer of artificial snow amid warmer-than-normal winter temperatures in the Alps in Lisien, Switzerland, on January 4, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Satellite images show Leutasch in Tyrol, western Austria, on New Year’s Day 2021 (L) compared to 2022. Photo: The Sentinel
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