Slopes with no snow: Czech ski resorts faced with closures

Eager skiers in Czechia faced disappointment this week as unseasonably warm weather has led to green slopes across the country, resulting in a number of ski-area closures.

With above-freezing temperatures even in the mountains – and daytime temperatures reaching double digits in the capital – the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ) has declared the situation “very rare,” ČTK reports.

"Over the last 33 years, we have experienced a similar situation only in January 1990,” said ČHMÚ earlier this week. The Červenohorské sedlo resort based in the Hrubý Jeseník mountain range, for example, has been forced to suspend operations. Earlier this week, the Ski Aréna Karlov resort in Moravian-Silesia also had to close. 

In the Krkonoše Mountains, the largest mountain range in Czechia, about half the slopes of the Špindlerův Mlýn resort were forced to close. 

Cross-country trails are particularly affected with “hardly any continuously maintained trails” owing to the weather, ČTK writes. In the Jizera Mountains, a traditional cross-country marathon due to take place on Jan. 7 was canceled.

Klínovec, based in the Krušné Mountains to the west, has also recently experienced difficulties; the highest skiable area was shut earlier this week. The large Skiareál Lipno ski area in the south of the country, near Austria’s border, also recently experienced operational difficulties.

iDnes reports that one ski resort in Monínec, Central Bohemia, even reduced its ski lift prices to cope with decreasing footfall as a result of the unseasonal weather.

The unprecedented closures are not a Czech phenomenon – several slopes in the Swiss Alps reported a lack of snow according to the BBC, and one of the stages of the Women’s Skiing World Cup in Zagreb, Croatia, was canceled Thursday due to a snow shortage, Canadian outlet CBC reports.

No significant snowfall or cooling is expected in the next week, meaning that slopes across Czechia will likely face the same difficulties in the coming days. Temperatures in the mountains are forecast to range between -1 and 4 degrees Celcius, but a significant drop in temperature – along with snowfall – is expected from mid-January.  

According to the head of the Climate Change Department of ČHMÚ, Radim Tolasz, high temperatures – reaching over 19 degrees Celsius in Czechia on New Year’s Day – are now the “new normal.”