Rain, sleet and snow under global warming at Norwegian tourist destinations

Snow is an essential aspect of skiing-based tourism, making it crucial for practitioners within the tourist industry to understand future snow conditions at different altitudes within their regions. However, despite an increase in the availability of climate change information on websites, such as the IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas, the spatial resolution and systematic errors in these products can limit their usefulness for practitioners.

To address these limitations, the ClimTour project has utilized post-processed data from Euro cordex to create maps showing projected future rain-, sleet-, and snowfall for the entire Norwegian mainland. These maps also show the distributions of rain, sleet, and snow at different altitudes in areas around selected tourist destinations. The project examined changes in the number of precipitation days and the average precipitation amount per precipitation day, as well as a combination of both factors, to determine changes in precipitation. The calculations were done on an annual basis as well as for winter (DJF) and spring (MAM).

By comparing coastal and inland areas at high and low altitudes, the project aimed to determine where and when snow will disappear. The results showed that the largest changes in the number of days with snow will occur along the coast in the north, while changes will be smaller along the coast in the south, where there are already quite a few snow days, and in mountainous areas, where temperatures remain below zero in winter. The percentage of snow will decrease the most along the coast, where it will become rare in some areas, and least in inner Finnmark and generally in mountainous areas.

Understanding these projections can help practitioners within the tourist industry plan for the future and adapt their businesses to changing snow conditions. Overall, the ClimTour project provides valuable information for the skiing-based tourism industry in Norway.