Antinuclear

The first month of winter was the driest June on record in much of the country’s south, while July brought record-breaking heat and little rain.

But despite the mild conditions, it has been pretty much business as usual at many of the major alpine resorts, with visitor numbers tracking around average.

That is because Australian ski resorts have invested heavily in advancements in snowmaking machines that can produce enough snow to cover ski runs, even when Mother Nature provides no natural snowfall.

This season, for the first time, some mountains have introduced a new generation of snowmaking technology that can churn out machine-made snow in just about any weather conditions.

And with predictions climate change could slash Australia’s ski seasons, resorts are making big investments in ramping up their snowmaking equipment to ensure the industry can keep drawing tourists to alpine regions in the winter months……….

Coping with climate change Australian ski seasons have always been hugely variable from year to year, but the long-term trend for natural snowfall is towards declining levels of natural snowfall.The CSIRO’s latest climate change modellingpredicts, under a low-risk scenario, the average snow season across Victoria and some of New South Wales will become 20 to 55 days shorter and, under a worst-case scenario, 30 to 80 days shorter.

Victoria’s Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Council also commissioned a report into how climate change could affect the state’s alpine resorts, published last year, which found seasons had been getting shorter with less overall snow depth since the 1960s.

That trend was tipped to accelerate, while winter weather would become more unpredictable……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-05/snowmaking-the-future-in-face-of-climate-change/8752210