ClimSnow is a climate service developed to inform ski resorts' strategies in the context of climate change. It provides estimates of the snow reliability within ski resorts across several mountain regions in France.
ClimSnow is a novel climate service addressing the long term impact of climate change on snow reliability in ski resorts, primarily in France, developed to inform ski resorts strategies in the context of climate change. It is based on a series of modeling tools developed at Météo-France-CNRS and INRAE in the past years, providing estimates of the snow reliability within ski resorts, explicitly taking into account snow management (grooming and snowmaking), and using ensembles of climate change scenarios adjusted to the mountain regions in France. Initially applied to the ski resorts of the Isère department, Northern French Alps as a prototype and first application, it is now developing across several French mountain regions.
The service is operated by the Dianeige consulting company, with scientific support from Météo-France and INRAE. This enables scaling up the provision of this service to a growing number of ski resorts, in an operational and commercial context, and including a consulting component benefitting from long standing expertise of Dianeige in providing consultancy services to mountain resorts, complementing the scientific figures on past and future climate change impacts on snow reliability.
ClimSnow takes into account the detailed configurations of ski resorts (ski lifts, ski pistes, snowmaking units) thanks to in-depth exchanges with ski resorts, making it possible to provide concrete analyses and recommendations in terms of adaptation strategies, such as targeted enhancements of snow reliability taking into account future climate impacts and risks, and diversification of tourism activities across all seasons. The presentation will provide a synthesis of the underpinning scientific and technical elements to ClimSnow, and provide a status report on current operations and potential for development.