November was too warm and too dry on the northern side of the Alps until now. Many ski areas are therefore suffering from a lack of snow. And because it was too warm for a long time, it was hard or even impossible for the artificial snow machines to create snow. Only since the low temperatures came in on November 17th they are producing snow.
Ischgl: 300 million liters of water turned into artificial snow
Ischgl opens its lifts today (November 22nd), but they had to work for it. The mild start of November is reminiscent of the mild start of winter 2014 when a number of ski areas could only open later than scheduled. In Ischgl, with their huge event in the first weekend, postpone the opening is not an option. No less than 300 million water has been converted into 800,000 cubic meters of snow in recent days. This results in 60 kilometers of slopes. A total of 1240 ‘snow cannons’ are responsible for the snow-making.
Very dry year in Austria
It is extremely dry in Austria since the start of the spring. There are parts where the water has not been available for a long time. The drought not only causes a lack of snow, it also causes a lack of water in many rivers and creeks.
Ischgl is one of the heavy users when it comes to water
Ischgl uses almost 900 million liters of water on average every year to provide their slopes with artificial snow. Ischgl is one of the heavy users when it comes to water in Tyrol. The heaviest user is the Kitzbühel ski area, where almost 1.2 billion liters of water is converted into artificial snow every year.
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