Temperatures in European Alps at 1,300-year high
mongabay.com
December 5, 2006
Temperatures in the European Alps are at the warmest point in 1,300 years according to the head of a European Union climate study.
Reinhard Boehm, a climatologist at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, said that the current warm period began in the 1980s and now exceeds temperatures seen in two earlier warm periods that occurred in the 10th and 12th centuries.
Boehm comments come nearly 5 months after a Geophysical Research Letters study reported that the European Alps could lose 80 percent of their glacier cover by the year 2100 should summer air temperatures increase by three degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit). The Swiss research projected that the Alps would become almost completely ice-free by the end of this century if summer temperatures rise by five degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit).
European ski resorts are apparently feeling the heat: many have had to postpone the start of ski season due to lack of snow, according to reports.
This article used information from a previous mongabay.com article, "Alps could lose 80% of glacier cover by 2100" and an Associated Press report, "Alps are warmest in 1,300 years."
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