America’s multi-billion-dollar ski industry is not taking climate change lightly: According to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), climate change is “the number one threat to the snow sports industry.” For decades, snow has remained "white gold" for skiers and the U.S. ski industry as a whole, worth as much as $58 billion annually, according to NSAA data.


But as the world warms, snowfall is decreasing overall. In fact, between 1972 and 2020, the average area covered by snow in North America decreased at a rate of about 1,870 square miles (4,843 square kilometers) per year, an area nearly the size of Delaware, according to the Rutgers University Global Snow Laboratory.

Scientists say the trend is expected to continue and could hit the ski industry hard in the coming decades.

NSAA spokesperson Adrienne Saia Isaac told the media: "Climate change poses an existential threat to ski areas. Its impacts extend far beyond skiing and horseback riding."

She said the snow sports industry relies on weather, and most critically, snow. "While we are accustomed to the uncertainty inherent in our business, climate change is exacerbating this challenge in different ways across the 37 states and six territories where ski areas operate."

Overall, scientists say climate change "poses a significant risk to the profitability and sustainability of the ski tourism industry as natural snow decreases and becomes more variable, increasing the requirements and costs of artificial snowmaking," according to a 2021 study published in the U.S. journal Tourism Management Perspectives.

As the ski industry knows well, climate change has affected snowfall amounts across the United States. Recent reports show significant declines in several key methods of measuring snowfall, snowpack extent and snowpack:

Total snowfall has decreased in many areas of the United States since widespread observations began in 1930, with 57% of sites showing a decrease, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Across all sites, the average change was a decrease of 0.19% per year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that the U.S. snow season shortened by nearly two weeks on average from 1972 to 2013.

The USDA reports that from 1982 to 2021, the snow season became shorter at approximately 86% of locations where snow cover was measured. Across all locations, the length of the snow season decreased by about 18 days on average.