It is one of the most famous places in the world for diving and is home to some of the most famous places.
But scientists warn that skiing holidays in the Alps could soon be a thing of the past.
Scientists from Eurac Research found that the amount of snow fell by a third between 1920 and 2020.
In some areas, the situation is even more dire as records show a decline of nearly 50 percent across the southwest.
Although the data goes back 100 years, snow levels only started to drop significantly from 1980 onwards.
The researchers say that this is related to the significant increase in the temperature of the air around the world due to humans. global warming.
In the most affected areas of the Southern Alps including ItalySlovenia and Austria, this change could damage the future of the winter sports.
Senior researcher Michele Bozzoli says: ‘The decrease in snow affects not only winter sports, but also all activities and processes that depend on water.’
Ski holidays in the Alps could be a thing of the past as researchers have found that snowfall has fallen by a third over the past 100 years. This map shows 46 pages across the Alps, the red arrows indicate areas with 30 percent snow cover.
There are growing concerns that skiing in the European Alps may become impossible as the number of snow days decreases. This is what happened on the slopes of Dent-de-Vaulion on February 2 when there was snow at altitudes below 1500m.
With an estimated 400 million people visiting ski resorts worldwide each year, snow is an important part of the tourism economy.
If the snow melts during the ski season between December and April, resorts have no choice but to run for shorter, less profitable seasons.
All over the world, there is growing concern that climate change could make them more vulnerable to extinction.
In their new study, researchers collected centuries of snow from 46 locations in the Alps by combining modern digital maps with handwritten records from the early 1900s.
This has led to the first detailed look at how the snow has changed over the past 100 years.
Mr Bozzoli says: “There are very bad conditions for snowfall in the Alps with a drop of around 34%.
‘In particular, a significant decrease was observed after 1980. This date is also associated with a similar increase in temperature.’
From 1980 onwards, air temperatures recorded by weather stations began to rise rapidly, reaching values about 1°C (1.8°F) above the 100-year average.
The reduction in snowfall in the Alps (left image) from the 100-year average (dotted line) coincided with a significant increase in air temperature (right image) that began in the 1980s due to human-caused climate change.
Lodges in the lower and warmer parts of the southern Alps were particularly affected as rising temperatures caused precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow. Photo: Skiers try to take advantage of the situation with the Lans en Vercors ski resort in France due to the lack of snow on January 27.
This temperature means that snow cannot form at low altitudes and rain falls as rain.
Despite the increase in precipitation, this means that more snow has fallen each year, especially in the warmer and lower regions.
The South-West and South-East regions have shown an average loss of 4.9 percent and 3.8 percent every decade respectively.
The northern regions, meanwhile, showed a small but worrying loss of 2.3 percent over the decade.
Mr. Bozoli says: ‘The worst conditions affect areas below 2,000 meters and are in southern areas such as Italy, Slovenia and part of the Austrian Alps.’
At high altitudes, the cold enough to keep the snow is stable.
However, the data shows that the temperature has risen so much in the south-west and south-east of the Alps that the rain often replaces the snow even at the highest altitudes.
Previous research has shown that Climate change is putting many of the world’s ski resorts at greater risk of losing snow by the end of the century.
Previous research suggests that ski resorts in the Australian Alps (pictured) may cease to be economically viable as snow days may drop below 100 days.
Earlier this year, researchers found that one in eight of the world’s glaciers may not have snow from 2071-2100.
The worst affected area is expected to be the Australian Alps which will only receive 38 days of snow per year.
Even the European Alps, home to 69 percent of the world’s slopes, are expected to have less than 42 percent of snow days by 2100.
Likewise, earlier this year the slopes of Mt Fuji were they left without snow for the longest time in 130 recorded years.
Snow did not reach its peak in Japan until early November, a month later than the October 2nd.
The situation has gotten so bad that many resorts are forced to store snow in sheltered areas during the summer in order to increase the number of skiers the following season.
However, the authors of the latest paper warn that the lack of snow across the Alps could ruin even more holidays.
Snow is very important in protecting mountain ecosystems and protecting mountain villages from flooding.
This map from a previous study shows how each ski area will be affected by climate change by 2100. Purple circles show areas that will not receive snow days, while yellow dots show areas that will not be affected.
When precipitation falls as rain instead of snow, it can drain quickly into mountain valleys, causing erosion and flooding.
A study done last year at Colorado State University found that rain-driven floods were twice as likely as snow-driven floods.
Mr. Bozzoli concludes: ‘Snow is very important as a reservoir of water, it feeds glaciers, mountain streams and, as it melts slowly during the spring, it gradually adds water to the reservoir.
‘This issue cannot be ignored in the planning of the water management plan’
