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Colorado Ski Seasons Expected to Shorten in Coming Years

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Despite heavy winter snowfall last winter across Western Colorado, ski seasons will become shorter in the future. That’s according to University of Colorado Boulder Climatologist Jim White.

 

 

 

“The ski industry has been keeping track of when ski season starts and when it ends for quite some time,” White said. “We’ve noticed a loss of days in the fall and a loss of days in the spring.”

White said a warming global climate will lead to more water in the atmosphere and warmer wintertime temperatures, bringing more rain than snow to the mountains. He predicted a loss of one to two skiable days per year in Colorado, and an eventual loss of any snow to ski areas below 9,000 feet.

Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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