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Photo of the Schladminger Planai from 1988 does not disprove climate change!

Austrian ski areas are increasingly struggling with a lack of snow. What was the exception on the Planai in 1988 will probably become the rule in the future.

Author: Walter Feichtinger

The claim

A photo of the Schladminger Planai from New Year's Day 1988 shows hardly any snow. This is supposed to disprove climate change.

Our conclusion

The photo is authentic, the winter of 1987/88 was very warm. Since then, average temperatures have continued to rise. January 1, 2023 was another 4 degrees warmer than back then. Climate researchers expect even less snow in the Alpine ski areas in the future.

A historical snapshot is intended to prove that climate change is not happening? It is not the first time that we have had to deal with this argument. Last year, for example, we had a beach photo from 1905 in Sydney or the Elbe in 1903 (1904). Either relevant conditions were not taken into account in these images, such as the tides and seasonal fluctuations in sea level in beach photos. Or they show a rare, historical extreme situation that unfortunately now occurs more frequently.

Note and statement from Planai: Planai has neither distributed this image nor does Planai question climate change in any way. Quite the opposite. Planai is aware of the impacts and has been investing in the area of ​​sustainability for years. The measures are diverse and range from the installation of PV systems to the use of electric buses and resource-saving snow management. The Planai distances itself from spreading a message that the climate will not change.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

The winters in northern Styria

The photo of the Planai near Schladming is the second case. The turn of the year 1987/88 was a particularly warm one. One of those temperature outliers, of which there used to be a few a century. The following graphic shows this quite well. There are no temperature data from the Planai, a ski area near Schladming, from the winter of 1987/88. The measurement data from Irdning-Gumpenstein comes from a location about 30 kilometers to the east.

Not the Schladminger Planai, but very close: Irdning-Gumpenstein 1988
Irdning-Gumpenstein station – daily average air temperature values ​​for winter 1988 © ZAMG

The bright red bars show temperatures above historical average temperatures (1961-90). The middle red peaks show extreme values. And the light gray line above represents a previous maximum. This also applies to temperatures below average and the blue bars. This year's winter is not over yet, so the comparison curve for 2022/23 only extends to the beginning of January:

Irdning-Gumpenstein: daily average values ​​in winter 2022/23
Irdning-Gumpenstein station – daily average air temperature for winter 2023 © ZAMG

Two things stand out here: The light gray curve is further up, so there have been new extreme values ​​for warm winters since 1988. And a new red color has been added. The dark red peaks around January 5, 2023 represent new highs. It has never been so warm on these days in the history of measurements in Irdning-Gumpenstein - only 30 km away from Schladming-Planai.

A comparison of the last few years

When comparing the January temperatures of the last 12 years, other things stand out: Only the temperatures in 2017 were above average. Except for this one year, every other January was warmer than the comparable period 1961-90. There were particularly warm days in 2015. And this year's January isn't looking good so far: it's currently 5.4 °C too warm for this time of year!

New Year's temperatures 1988 and 2023 in Austria

The head of the ORF weather department, meteorologist Marcus Wadsak, looked at January 1st of both years in detail. New Year's Day 1988 was already far too warm in Austria. In 2023, however, it was even more extreme:

Because a picture of the snow-poor Planai from 1988 is often circulating here - a few words about it. Yes, that was a thing back then...

Posted by Marcus Wadsak at the Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Will snow in the Alps soon be a thing of the past?

This winter, most Austrian ski resorts in the central Alpine region received enough snow. snow depths are reported today (January 12, 2023) , with temperatures around freezing point. webcams is white too The ski season seems to be at least secured in advance.

But what about the medium and long term? Climate researcher Wolfgang Schöner from the University of Graz, together with the Swiss Snow Research Institute in Davos, has evaluated around 200 weather stations in Austria and Switzerland since 1961. In order to make statements about climatic changes and to see a trend, you have to look at long periods of time. The snow in the Alps is “an important sign that the change from one year to the next can be huge,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung .

“The decline is pretty robust everywhere,” explains Schöner. Especially in the southern Alpine region, the amount of snow has been steadily decreasing for decades, by around twelve centimeters per decade. The situation is similar in Switzerland, as the data from snow researcher Christoph Marty shows. To do this, Marty looked at the number of snow days since 1959. At altitudes above 1,300 meters there are now a quarter fewer snow days in the last 30 years than in the same period before. At medium altitudes (up to 800 m) there was a third fewer days of snow and below that there was half less.

Climate change will not stop at the European high mountains. “Mountains in Europe will look completely different,” SZ climate researchers from the specialist magazine Cryosphere . “Glaciers at low and medium altitudes will have disappeared, even large valley glaciers will have experienced a sharp retreat and loss of mass.” The snow line will then be higher and the number of snow days will continue to decrease.

CONCLUSION: The photo is most likely authentic.
The winter of 1987/88 was warmer than average in a long-term comparison, and this also applies to New Year's Day. However, the photo document has no evidentiary value when it comes to statements regarding climate change. This requires regular measurements and a long-term trend. Climate researchers say: We must expect even fewer snow days in the Alps in the future.

Mimikama Rating: MISLEADING

We couldn't find out which newspaper the photo of the ski descent was printed in. In any case, it was made by the Schladming professional photographer Chris Lang, who has long since handed over his master business.


Sources: ZAMG , SZ , schneehoehen.de , planai.at

More on the topic: Beach photo from 1905 does not disprove climate change

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