Of 21 Winter Olympic Cities, Many May Soon Be Too Warm to Host the Games
- 6 years ago
Of 21 Winter Olympic Cities, Many May Soon Be Too Warm to Host the Games
Pyeongchang, South Korea
Eight host locations
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
St. Mortiz, Switzerland
In Sochi, whose mild climate made it an unusual choice for the Winter Games, organizers banked
snow from the previous winter, storing it in shady places and covering it with insulation.
According to Dr. Scott’s research, using emissions projections in which global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise through midcentury
and global temperatures increase by 4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, nine of the host locations will be too hot to handle the Games.
Because of climate change, though, by 2050 many prior Winter Games locations may be too warm to ever host the Games again.
When the temperatures are above freezing, as they were during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver
and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, you have to turn to more extreme measures.
Despite these efforts, athletes at both Games complained of poor snow that they said led to unfair conditions.
A team of researchers, led by Daniel Scott, a geography professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, came to
that conclusion by taking climate data from previous Winter Games locations and applying climate-change models to predict future winter weather conditions.
Pyeongchang, South Korea
Eight host locations
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
St. Mortiz, Switzerland
In Sochi, whose mild climate made it an unusual choice for the Winter Games, organizers banked
snow from the previous winter, storing it in shady places and covering it with insulation.
According to Dr. Scott’s research, using emissions projections in which global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise through midcentury
and global temperatures increase by 4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050, nine of the host locations will be too hot to handle the Games.
Because of climate change, though, by 2050 many prior Winter Games locations may be too warm to ever host the Games again.
When the temperatures are above freezing, as they were during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver
and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, you have to turn to more extreme measures.
Despite these efforts, athletes at both Games complained of poor snow that they said led to unfair conditions.
A team of researchers, led by Daniel Scott, a geography professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, came to
that conclusion by taking climate data from previous Winter Games locations and applying climate-change models to predict future winter weather conditions.