A recent article about the Winter Olympics in China discussed how the planet’s warming temperatures are supposedly contributing to a “disappearance” of winter. The authors used convoluted data and some apparent falsehoods to support their argument. It’s the latest hysteria from these ecological doomsayers in their misguided attempts to validate predictions that are not necessarily science-based.
“Climate change is here,” the piece quotes Travis Ganong, a 33-year-old Olympic skier. “It’s happening. We’re living in it right now. It’s not something that’s going to be in the distant future. It’s here. And you see it with the fires in California, floods in Europe, higher snow levels, shorter winters, longer summers, droughts. It runs the whole gamut. Everywhere in the world is having some effect from it. And there’s not really any turning back.”
Ganong is not a scientist; he is a skier. His statements should be taken with a grain of salt. Moreover, if “there’s not really any turning back,” as he claimed, then there is not any point in making all these climate change-related transformations, is there?
I’m sure that is not what Ganong intended by his statement — it was probably said to emphasize yet another doomsday prognostication regarding climate change. But it’s always important to remember that 90% of these climate-related proclamations are just empty rhetoric.
Reading the article and its specific claims, one comes away with the impression that the very existence of winter is in peril. But there is no evidence to suggest that. Yes, there are changes in weather patterns, but it is disingenuous to blame climate change or a warming planet every single time a rare weather event happens.
Furthermore, the “evidence” the authors use in the article is suspect. One piece of it, for example, is this winter’s snowfall total in Colorado. “In December,” they argue, “Colorado set a record that stood since the 1880s for most consecutive days without snow. After warm temperatures and just an inch of snowfall by Dec. 30, wind-fueled wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes in the state.”
It is not exactly clear what they are referring to here about getting less than an inch of snow. The data show that Colorado, including Denver and multiple other locations in the state, had significantly more than an inch of snow before Dec. 30. Here is a list of the snowfall totals of cities in Colorado as of Dec. 10. Here is a report showing the mountains in Colorado getting pummeled with a snowstorm on Dec. 9-10. Some totals include amounts of over two feet in several areas and over 12 inches in many areas. Here is video evidence of significant snowfall that month — more than “just an inch of snowfall by Dec. 30.”
I emailed the authors of the Associated Press article to clarify their claim about the lack of snowfall in Colorado in December, and the inquiry went unanswered.
In any case, the implication here is that climate change has resulted in no snow and contributed to wildfires. But there is no evidence of this, either. Sure, overall snow totals that month were indeed average. There was even a drought. But this is not the first time in history that has happened. And — this is very important — you have to have below-average years in order to have an average, just as not all Associated Press reporters can have IQs above their workplace average. That’s simple math.
Additionally, the article discusses other areas of the U.S. where snowfall has been light. But it fails to mention that other places (such as Lake Tahoe) have shattered records for snow.
Furthermore, the article also highlights China’s mountains, where the snow-based Olympic events will occur, Yanqing County in suburban Beijing and Chongli County in Zhangjiakou. The authors specifically state that the areas are “chilly but are missing real snowflakes.” But this has nothing to do with climate change — this is normal for those places. The typical annual snowfall total in the mountainous area in Yanqing is about 7.95 inches. In Zhangjiakou, the total is only slightly higher at 8.26 inches. These totals are shockingly low. To put this in comparison, the average annual snowfall total for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is 13 inches per year.
That is not enough to ski. In these Chinese locations, the creation of artificial snow is kind of a prerequisite to holding the Olympics there — something that was not lost on these skiing enthusiasts (they sardonically recommend Phoenix for the 2026 games) even if it was completely lost on Associated Press reporters attempting to amp up the climate alarmism.
To further put things in perspective, Aspen gets an annual average of more than 14 feet of snow. The average yearly snowfall in the high-altitude ski area adjacent to Boise, Idaho, is 20 feet. In contrast, China’s acquisition of water for artificial snow-making has been part of a yearslong plan to hold the ski events in these nonskiing locations.
The game of climate prediction is so detached from climate science that people should really stop writing about it. Such predictions have been made for decades, and they are no closer to coming true today than they were so many years ago.
