The Winter Olympics and Snowmaking

The holding of a Winter Olympics in a region that gets very little snow has cast a media spotlight on Olympic snowmaking and climate change.  Especially attention grabbing has been the Yanqing Alpine Venue where, until a small storm a couple of days ago, featured ribbons of artificial snow covering the courses. 

The lack of natural snow at that venue really makes the extensive use of artificial snowmaking stand out.  Media reports suggest that a million cubic meters of water was used for snowmaking for Beijing.  I wanted to check that number and dis some searching.  The Beijing 2022 Pre-Games Sustainability Report estimates that the total water demand for the Winter Olympics (November to March) in the Yanqing Zone Venues was estimated to be about 890,000 cubic meters and and for the Zhangijakou Zone Venues is 1.9 million cubic meters.  These numbers include all water consumption.  For the Zhangijakou Zone, the 1.9 million cubic meters includes 730,000 cubic meters for snowmaking and 1.17 cubic meters for domestic water consumption.  Assuming the snowmaking and domestic water consumption scale similarly for Yanqing, that gives a number that is around 1.07 million.  

How does that compare with other Olympics?  Media reports from Sochi 2014 suggest that 230 million gallons of water was used for snowmaking at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Venue.  That's 870,000 cubic meters of water.  Similarly, for the Pyeongchang 2018 Jeongseon Alpine Venue 200 million gallons was used (about 750,000 cubic meters).  Those numbers are just for the Alpine Venues.  If you add in snowmaking for cross country, biathalon, ski jumping, freestyle, etc., you're probably up around or above 1 million cubic meters.  

A lot of people have argued that the Olympics should be moved to a snowier location.  For instance, what if the Games come back to Utah in 2030 or 2034?  Utah is pretty snowy right?  

My experience during the 2002 Winter Olympics was that snowmaking was used extensively to build up a sufficient snowpack early in the winter to guarantee events will be held in February.  This happened even at Snowbasin, the highest and snowiest venue.  At a venue like Soldier Hollow, which is lower and definitely not snow sure, snowmaking was used extensively and even during non Olympic years is absolutely essential for operations.  Soldier Hollow had major problems with their snowmaking system a few years ago, forcing all sorts of disruptions.  I suspect that the water consumption at Soldier Hollow for snowmaking on a per kilometer of trail basis is not dramatically different than for the Cross Country and Biathalon venues for Beijing.  If Salt Lake City hosts the 2030 or 2034 Games, expect a lot of snow to be made.  

Alternatively, let's look at snowmaking at ski resorts.  Here's an example from the Kitzbuhel area in Austria based on a paper that was published in 2008.  This is a major resort area, which in 2008 consisted of 20 cities and villages with 6.5 million overnight stays per year by tourists, 54% of which occurred from December to March.  In this region, annual public water demand was 3.5 million cubic meters, of which 1.5 million was for overnight tourist stays.  It was estimated, however, that artificial snowmaking for the resorts required an additional 2.3 million cubic meters of water.  

The reality is that the modern Olympic Games require snowmaking.  As do many World Cup events and training facilities.  There are two reasons for this.  One is climate change.  Another is course preparation demands that require substantial amounts of snow and snow farming.  There are few places where superpipes and slopestyle courses can be built from natural snow alone.  

The 2026 Winter Olympics are will be in Milano-Cortina.  The modern Winter Olympics requires a large host city (Lake Placid could never, by itself, host the current version of the Winter Olympics).  Hence Milan.  It also requires outdoor venues, which in the case of Milano-Cortina will be scattered through the Italian Alps in Livigno, Bormio Stelvio, Val di Fiemme, Cortina d'Ampezo, and Anterselva.  Snow will be made.  A lot of it.  Those resorts make a ton of snow for regular operations. 

They could also throw a lot more weather challenges at the athletes, venue managers, and local organizing committee.  As a fan and meteorologist, I'm looking forward to it already!