No Snow For Snowdon?

Walkers and climbers will be usurprised by the news that Snowdon could be without snow by 2022 according to scientists who have been monitoring snowfall patterns on the highest mountain in England and Wales.

No snow on Snowdon? Best get used to it then....

The BBC quotes Bangor University scientists as saying that the mountain's snow cover has fallen by about a third in the last ten years and if current trends continue, the winter norm could be just a dusting of snow high up the mountain. Over the last two years, they say, snow cover has actually been half what would have been expected in the past.

According to an expert with the Countryside Council for Wales, there is 'a distinct downward trend in the snow cover - not only in the height at which the snow is occurring but also in the season.'

The snow season is apparently getting shorter and the amount of snow on the mountain is declining as well. None of this will be news to winter walkers and climbers who have noticed the decline in winter conditions over the last decade. Not only does snow appear to fall less frequently, cold snaps seem to be shorter, so winter conditions vanish rapidly.

For those of us unsure as to what Snowdon looks like without snow, doh, the Countryside Council for Wales has apparently created a series of 3D computer models illustrating the gradual retreat of the snowline up the mountain to a point where, erm, we suspect it looks like a snowless Snowdon. Actually we can see what they're getting at, but it sounds slightly daft.

So there you go, if you want to tackle a classic gully on the Trinity Face, you'd best get your skates, erm, sorry, crampons on before the big defrost button is well and truly pressed.

Full details at news.bbc.co.uk