Fig 6 - uploaded by Riccardo Scotti
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Serie storiche di altezza totale del manto nevoso (HS) al termine della stagione di accumulo presso i siti nivologici SGL.
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Una stagione di accumulo eccezionalmente secca, aggravata da un mese di maggio dalle temperature elevatissime, ha provocato una scarsità di neve senza precedenti sui ghiacciai lombardi
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... Fall was also too warm, with a relatively cool September, a very warm October and a mild November. Besides record-high temperatures over much of the summer half-year (including high zero-degree lines, mild nights and infrequent frost events even at high altitudes-see DWD, MeteoSchweiz and ZAMG, 2022 for the Central and Eastern Alps), little winter snow (e.g., Scotti and Lendvai, 2022 for the glaciers in Lombardy/Italy), dirty glacier surfaces (e.g., dust, debris etc.) and hardly any summer snowfall contributed to an unprecedented glacier melt in the Alps (Figures 1c, d). Germany, for example, lost one of its five glaciers, meaning that what is left of the Südlicher Schneeferner is officially no longer considered a glacier (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2022). ...
The summer of 2022 in the European Alps was characterized by extremely warm and dry conditions which led to a record icemelt on Alpine glaciers, also due to the
preceding winter season with below average snow cover. Given its dependence on natural conditions, glacier summer skiing was highly affected.We compare the
number of glacier ski operating days across the Alps for 2011, 2018 and 2022 and
roll forward existing time series data from Austria to include the last three seasons
(i.e., 2020–2022). Results show considerable decreases in the summer half-year
ski operation all over the Alps (−45.1% compared to 2011). Summer ski operation
in the meteorological (−63.3%) and astronomical summer (−69.7%) declined even
more. In Austria, the decline trend of summer ski operating days continues and
reaches all-time lows in 2022. We sum up the impacts of the extreme summer of
2022 on Alpine glacier ski areas and discuss its short- to mid-term repercussions.
In combination with demand shifts like the potential change of national ski teams’
training patterns ongoing climate change induced glacier shrinkage might lead to
the definite end of Alpine summer skiing in the near future.
