Switzerland is rapidly losing its snow -- and climate change is probably to blame (?)

Only someone who knows no history would fall for this tosh. One of the best known events in ancient history is when Hannibal marched elephants over the Alps for his invasion of Rome.  You would never even try it these days.

It was during the Roman warm period and the Alps were at that time largely snow free.  Clearly snow cover in that area is subject to large natural fluctuations.  So any reference to global warming is entirely supererogatory. 

In any case reduced snowfall in recent years is the likely cause of the reduced snow cover and reduced precipitation is generally a sign of COOLING, not warming.  The fact that the winter of 2017–18 saw record snowfall may indicate that the cycle has just gone into reverse


A new study based on analysis of satellite images shows how much snow cover Switzerland has lost in the last 20 years.
Although Switzerland's mountain areas saw record snow fall in the winter of 2017–18, the country is rapidly losing its snow cover and global warming is probably the cause, a new study suggests.

While just over a third of Switzerland (36 percent) had a very low likelihood (less than 20 percent) of seeing snow in the two decades from 1995 to 2005, that figure jumped to 44 percent from 2005 to 2017.

That is an area of 5,200 square kilometres, or about the size of the canton of Valais.

The results are based on analysis of satellite images of Switzerland carried out by researchers at the University of Geneva and at the United Nations GRID-Geneva environmental data centre.

The study also shows that the area of Switzerland given over to eternal snow (where there is an 80 to 100 percent chance of snowfall) also shrank in the period studied – from 27 percent over the 1995–2005 period to 23 percent from 2005 to 2017.

The loss here is some 2,100 square kilometres, which is an area some seven times larger than the canton of Geneva.

The reduction in snow cover could be seen in the Jura region and in the Alps and was “particularly evident” in the Rhone Valley, said University of Geneva and GRID-Geneva researcher Grégory Giuliani in a press release.

SOURCE