FIS-WMO webinar sheds a light on the dynamics between climate change and ski tourism
Dec 11, 2024·Inside FIS
The partnership between FIS and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), announced in October, is starting to bear fruit.
The knowledge and expertise of the United Nations’ specialized agency has begun to be put at the service of the snow sports ecosystem with a webinar for all 137 National Ski Associations, as well as FIS staff, venue managers and event organizers.
Participants were treated to a presentation on Climate change and ski tourism: a status report and examples of services to better anticipate and adapt to current and upcoming challenges, courtesy of Samuel Morin, researcher at Météo-France and director of CNRM, the main research laboratory of Météo-France, jointly operated with CNRS.
Morin presented a wealth of scientific data – showing, for example, that in the European Alps, per decade, winter temperatures have been rising by 0.3 to 0.4°C, or that snow cover duration has been decreasing in five to seven days at low elevation, i.e. approximately below 2000 m above sea level. For each degree of additional global warming, about another month of snow cover duration will be lost.
More importantly, he invited participants to explore existing tools that help forecast, understand, and act upon the effects of climate change, with two examples: ClimSnow, addressing climate change impacts and providing information fostering adaptation in the long term, and PROSNOW, a model for forecasting weather and snow conditions in ski resorts over climate and weather time scales, respectively.
PROSNOW allows ski resorts to optimize their preparation and snowmaking in real time, supporting their operations in increasingly difficult operating conditions due to climate change and contributing to the development of early warning systems to better cope with the impact of variable weather and snow conditions. Morin also insisted on the interplay between climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas emissions of the ski tourism sector.
“This is one of the pillars of our partnership with the WMO: to facilitate access to the latest and most reliable research and tools that exists in this field. Our intention is to ensure that snow sports’ stakeholders know everything there is to know about the effects of climate change and are as well-equipped as possible to act,” says FIS Sustainability Director Susanna Sieff.
"The 2024 State of Climate Services Report highlights successes in developing and using climate services to deliver a range of socioeconomic benefits and to advance climate action," says WMO Director for Climate Services, Dr. Chris Hewitt.
The full FIS-WMO webinar is available below: