First Snow Hits Alps & Rockies as Super El Niño Claims First Victims
- Henry
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
The first snowfalls have hit the northern hemisphere in the past week, with both the Rockies and Alps seeing strong flurries turning mountains white once more!
High points in the Alps above 3,000m saw their first snowfall of the second half of the year, with Zermatt and Les Deux Alpes turning white in the last week of August. This is not uncommon for this time of year, and is an exciting statement of the winter to come; don’t expect this snow to last, however!
This follows the hottest summer on record for the Alps, which has seen some of its fastest glacier retreats in memory as well as consistently hot and dry conditions throughout. This quick return to autumnal conditions will therefore be gratefully received.
Webcams in North America similarly turned snowy over the August bank holiday weekend, with a string of resorts across the Canadian Rockies reporting flurries hitting the ground in this period. Revelstoke, Fernie and Banff all showed off their snowfall totals as things turn autumnal here, too.
It was not all good news, however. With South America benefitting from record snowfall, Australia resorts, conversely, announced they were shutting up shop after a disastrous winter. Mount Baw Baw and Selwyn Snowfields have stopped their lifts for the rest of the season, and bigger locations such as Perisher are hanging on with manufactured snow.
Whilst this reflects a long-term trend in the instability of snowfall in Australia, the levels of bare ground are testament to the strength of the “super” El Niño forming in the Pacific; like much of Europe, this was Australia’s hottest winter on record.
It remains to be seen where else will suffer as a result of this weather patten this winter.
