{"id":4009,"date":"2026-10-28T22:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T22:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/french-ski-resorts-still-rely-on-artificial-snow-but-milder-autumn-weather-will-shrink-their-snowmaking-windows\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T22:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T22:24:52","slug":"french-ski-resorts-still-rely-on-artificial-snow-but-milder-autumn-weather-will-shrink-their-snowmaking-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/french-ski-resorts-still-rely-on-artificial-snow-but-milder-autumn-weather-will-shrink-their-snowmaking-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"French ski resorts still rely on artificial snow, but milder autumn weather will shrink their snowmaking windows"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a September 2026 that was among the warmest ever recorded in France, seasonal trends point toward a mild end of the year. For ski resorts, which rely on artificial snow to open at Christmas, the question becomes urgent. Between physical thresholds, investments, and altitude, here is what the milder spell actually changes.<\/p>\n

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The Court of Auditors estimated in 2024 that 13.6% of ski resorts’ investments were allocated to snowmaking equipment<\/h2>\n

In February 2024, the Court of Auditors<\/strong> published a public thematic report titled \u201cMountain resorts in the face of climate change.\u201d According to its calculations, resorts spent an average of 45 million euros per year over five years on snow production installations. This represents 13.6% of their investments<\/strong>, not counting maintenance, energy, water, and labor.<\/p>\n

Read also<\/span> The Aigoual Massif was nearly bare in 1850; half a century of sowing has grown 16,000 hectares of forest<\/span><\/section>\n

The report also notes that 39% of the French skiable domain<\/strong> is now covered by snowmaking, up from 19% in 2007. However, the jurisdiction describes this tool as a \u201crelative and transitional\u201d protection, since its effectiveness declines as temperatures rise. Moreover, the industry contested the representativeness of the studied sample, which mainly consisted of small and medium-sized resorts.<\/p>\n

With 555 million euros invested in 2025, ski areas are now prioritizing new lifts<\/h2>\n

The annual barometer conducted with Domaines skiables de France<\/strong> and Atout France puts the 2025 effort at 555 million euros. This amount corresponds to roughly 32% of the sector\u2019s pre-tax revenue. Next, the breakdown reveals a clear shift in priorities.<\/p>\n

Indeed, new ski lifts<\/strong> absorb about 281 million euros, nearly half of the total. Expenditure on produced snow slows after several years of growth. However, the installed snowmaking fleet remains substantial, and its profitability still depends on the thermometer.<\/p>\n

Read also<\/span> Facing droughts, French farmers rely on satellites to better manage water<\/span><\/section>\n

September 2026 shows +3.1 \u00b0C and a rainfall deficit close to 70%, according to Meteo-France\u2019s assessment<\/h2>\n

The assessment published by M\u00e9t\u00e9o-France<\/strong> on October 2 places September 2026 as the second warmest since 1900, with an anomaly of +3.1 \u00b0C<\/strong>. Notably, it is the fourth consecutive month in which the deviation from the norm exceeds 3 \u00b0C. Moreover, only two Septembers have been less rainy since 1958.<\/p>\n

For the October-December quarter, seasonal trends would favor a end-of-year warmer-than-normal across mainland France and Corsica. An excess of rainfall would also be possible in parts of the country, excluding the Southeast. Nevertheless, these forecasts remain probabilistic and do not describe the weather for a given week nor for a specific massif.<\/p>\n

Under a humid temperature of -2 \u00b0C, snowmakers can still operate at altitude and on cold nights<\/h2>\n

Producing snow requires spraying fine droplets of water into air cold enough for them to freeze before hitting the ground. According to the Court of Auditors, production begins at a humid temperature of -2 \u00b0C and becomes optimal between -5 and -8 \u00b0C. Yet, this value takes humidity into account: in dry air, production can start when the thermometer reads close to zero.<\/p>\n

Read also<\/span> The Long Beach oil-pumping has caused the ground to subside by 9 meters before injected water stopped its fall<\/span><\/section>\n

Consequently, a broadly mild quarter does not render the snow cannons useless. The cold windows<\/strong>, often nocturnal, and high-altitude areas will still allow production, albeit for shorter periods and at a higher cost. By contrast, low- and mid-altitude resorts remain the most exposed, which renews the debate on diversification beyond skiing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1527,2612,1199,2611,2609,2608,482,2607,2610,2613,910,2614],"class_list":["post-4009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-artificial","tag-autumn","tag-french","tag-milder","tag-rely","tag-resorts","tag-shrink","tag-ski","tag-snow","tag-snowmaking","tag-weather","tag-windows","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4011,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4009\/revisions\/4011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}