Snow shortage threatens Ski stations

Ski stations in France are having to close due to the very mild winter & consequential lack of snow. The station of Mourtis, in the Pyrenees, has closed its ski slopes for “an undetermined amount of time” because “there is no more snow”, it announced. The small station is between 1,350 and 1,860 metres, and has 19 ski pistes, of which three are “black slopes”. The station of Luchon in the Pyrenees has also taken the exceptional move of having 50 tonnes of snow transported by helicopter to keep their slopes open. Several other resorts in the Pyrenees which are classed as mid-altitude (starting at 1,500m altitude) are having difficulty keeping their slopes open with the warm weather melting any snow that does fall.

The ski stations of Mont Dore, Super Besse & Le Lioran in the Massif Central have mostly closed their slopes after unsuccessfully trying to keep open by using snow cannons.

December & January have been exceptionally mild making this winter the second-most mild winter on record. Record high winter temperatures of 25C have been recorded recently in Biarritz whilst Agen & Carcassonne have also broken temperature records.