Costa ski season will be dramatically shorter than at present

By the end of this century, the ski season in the Pyrenees will be dramatically shorter than it is at present - if one exists at all - according to scientists who are predicting a sharp increase in temperatures and rapid decline in precipitation in the mountain range due to global warming.The study by Spain's High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) warns that average temperatures will rise by at least 2.8ºC by 2100 in a best case scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions are low, and by around 4ºC in the worst-case, high-emissions scenario. At the same time, the amount of rain and snow fall is expected to plunge by between 10.7 percent and 14.8 percent per year."These models predict [temperature and precipitation changes] of sufficient magnitude to directly affect the availability of water, economic activities and the environment of the region," Juan Ignacio Lopez Moreno, one of the study's authors, said this week.The researchers base their predictions, which cover the period between 2070 and 2100, on six regional climate models that were able to accurately estimate climatic conditions between 1960 and 1990 in the Pyrenees.

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