Avalanche in the Swiss Alps.
Photo: Martin Wandel/iStock
Impacts on industry and infrastructure conditions over a broad area have become important man-
agement tools for economic sectors impacted by snow.
Certain industries depend heavily on reliable snow cover. Oil While they are not always accurate, they are the best avail-
and gas companies, for example, use ice roads in the Arctic able source of day-to-day information for most industries.
to gain access to resource fields. In order to protect the tun-
dra ecosystem, temperature and snow-depth criteria must Impacts on environmental hazards
be met before a company builds an ice road. Other indus-
tries benefit from less snow, as snow-removal costs can be Snow avalanches, in which large quantities of snow slide
significant for both small and large businesses. Events such down a mountainside, are major hazards in steep terrain,
as mid-winter melting or rain-on-snow can cause flooding causing economic losses, injury and loss of life. Fatalities
and lead to damage of roads, bridges and homes
92
. due to avalanches in the western United States increased
to 25 per year in the 1990s
96
. In the European Alps, there
The amount of snow per event, number of events per sea- was an average of 114 victims per year between 1975 and
son, timing within the day and work week
93
all affect the 1988, three quarters of them mountain and ‘off track’
economic impact of snow. The economic impact of a snow skiers
97
. Factors that create high risk of avalanches are:
event on a region’s infrastructure also depends on popula- slopes of 35–45°, new snow accumulations of 50–100 cm,
tion density. For example, the Northeast Snow Impact Scale and high wind speeds; the order and thickness of layers
(referring to the northeast region of the United States) takes within the snow pack are also important
98
. Increasing
population density as well as snow-cover extent into account events of rain-on-snow as in the western United States,
in assessing economic impacts of a snow event
94
. Expecta- noted in the “Trends and outlook” section above, may
tions also play an important role in determining the eco- enhance the triggering of avalanche release. This is an
nomic impact of climate changes
95
, including changes in increasing risk at lower elevations and in coastal moun-
snow cover. Weather model forecasts that depict weather tains with rising winter temperatures.
CHAPTER 4 SNOW 57
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