Even Minor Temperature Rise May Finish Pacific Northwest Skiing Industry

[hatrack]

CORVALLIS This winter's deep snow in the Cascades is a snowboarder's dream, but a new study suggests that ski areas may have fewer such bonanza seasons if Northwest temperatures continue to rise as they have for decades. Projecting warmer weather from a climate model keyed to the Pacific Northwest, researchers at Oregon State University identify 19 ski areas in the Cascade and Olympic mountain areas as being "at risk" of substantially fewer cold, and snowy, winters by midcentury.

They calculate that Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort, for example, now faces warm winters about 7 percent of the time but by 2040 would have warm winters nearly half the time. If the projections prove accurate, lower elevation ski areas, such as Cooper Spur and Mt. Hood Skibowl, would be especially hard-hit, going to warm winters nearly 75 percent of the time, up from between 30 percent and 40 percent now.

Past climate studies by others have projected rising temperatures and thinner Northwest snowpacks. But this study, by OSU geographers Anne W. Nolin and Christopher Daly and slated for publication in the Journal of Hydrometeorology, is the first to employ a climate mapping system that identifies relatively small areas in the Cascades where snow might disappear.

The potential dramatic impact of the findings owes to the transition climate of the Cascades in which a single degree or two Fahrenheit often is the difference between snow and rain. The same is not true, for example, in the far colder Wallowas of northeast Oregon.

EDIT

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1141790140180310.xml&coll=7

[aquart]

1. So all those multimillion dollar ski lodges.......

they'll be tax write-offs?

[Warpy]

2. No, they'll be summer lodges

for people dodging hurricanes in the southeast and crowds in California.

[megatherium]

3. The central Oregon Cascades are tremendously beautiful.

The Three Sisters wilderness is incredible.

[freeplessinseattle]

4. Last winter the ski resorts never opened

people were shocked. (well, some people, not everyone). the reality is chilling.

[Javaman]

5. Time to think about dirt or grass skiing...nt