http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/16/world/europe/16austria.html

KITZBÜHEL,
Austria, Dec. 15 — How balmy has it been in the Alps these last few months?
At the bottom of the Hahnenkamm, the famously treacherous downhill course in
this Austrian ski resort, the slope peters out into a grassy field. And it’s
just 10 days before Christmas.


If venturing outdoors without a jacket is not enough evidence, there are two new
studies — one that says the Alps are the warmest they have been in 1,250 years
and another that predicts that an increase of a few more degrees would leave
most Alpine resorts with too little snow to survive.


Climatologists, however, say the warming trend will become dramatic by 2020. The
new studies are alarming, suggesting that the Alps are warming twice as fast as
the average in the rest of the world. In 1980, 75 percent of Alpine glaciers
were advancing; now, 90 percent are retreating.


Temperatures in the Alps began heating up around 1980, Mr. Böhm said, after an
uncommonly cool period that started in 1950. This coincided with the major
development of the European ski industry.