Snow shortages hit Alpine ski resorts as winter heatwave hits Europe with record-breaking temperatures

An unseasonably warm winter and low snowfall has caused snow shortages in Europe’s Alpine ski resorts.

Instead of snow, patches of grass, rock and dirt were visible in some of Europe’s skiing sites including Innsbruck in Austria, Villars-sur-Ollon and Crans-Montana in Switzerland, and Germany’s Lenggries.

The shortage has been particularly burdensome around Switzerland’s Adelboden, which is set to host World Cup skiing on Saturday (7 January). The event generally draws around 25,000 fans for a single day of racing.

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

Due to the lack of snow from rising temperatures, course director Toni Hadi acknowledged that the race will be run on 100% artificial snow this year.

He told ITV News: “The climate is a bit changing but what should we do here? Shall we stop with life? Everything is difficult - not only to prepare a ski slope.”

Meteo France said in the southern and 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.

Exceptionally warm weather has prompted some resorts at lower altitudes to close down as snow cover melted away.

Skiing resorts affected by shortages of snow comes after eight countries across Europe broke record high temperatures in January, reviving concerns about climate change.

A weather map showed Poland racking up daily highs in the double digit temperatures in recent states, while 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, hit a record average daily temperature of 18.1C on the first day of the year - over 2.5C higher than the previous record high for January.

Other cities and towns followed suit with records, with Germany seeing unusually spring-like temperatures - as high as 16C in parts of the country on Monday (2 January).

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

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.

She said that while slopes above 2,000 metres have got snow lower down, “the order of the day is patience”.

Meanwhile, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation has said the past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record.