Nature No winter snow on Spain's Teide for first time in history

[Maciamo]

Mount Teide in Tenerife (Spain) is very similar to Mount Fuji in many respects. Both are volcanoes and are almost exactly the same height (3,715 m vs 3,776 m). Both of them are the tallest mountain in their respective countries and are listed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Like Mount Fuji, Teide is normally snow-capped in winter. But for the first time since records began 108 years ago there has been no snow at all on top of the volcano this winter (as reported by The Local).

This is what it normally looks like in winter

And what it looks like this year.

In the context of global warming, it is very unlikely that it will experience snow again — at least in our lifetimes and for the centuries to come.

That makes me wonder how many years are left for Mount Fuji to remain the iconic snow-capped mountain that we know. Mount Fuji is only a 7 degrees of latitude north of Tenerife. 5 years? 10 years? And after that no more pictures of Mount Fuji as we know it. That could also be a big blow to Japanese tourism.

 

[thomas]

Another sad benchmark: the Swiss Alps:

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/28/europe/switzerland-glaciers-ice-loss-climate-intl/index.html

The same in my home country:

Austria’s fastest melting glacier gives up decades-old corpse

Alpine guide makes discovery on Schlatenkees glacier in Tyrol province, a few weeks after other human remains were found

www.theguardian.com

Strange enough, Fujisan still looks fine. We can view it from the hill we live on, and it's still deeply covered in snow. Hopefully, this won't change within the next few winters.

 

[mdchachi]

In the context of global warming, it is very unlikely that it will experience snow again — at least in our lifetimes and for the centuries to come.

Even in the context of global warming the weather is cyclic and this year had El Nino and other effects. I'm positive you'll see snow on it again.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

I don't worry too much about global warming and do believe weather runs in cycles. I am super happy here in Portland , we had a record winter for very little snow. In school in the early 60's , they taught weather went in 20 year cycles. I believe it's more like 30 year now. I would not be surprised in a few more years people will be worrying about the new "ice age" coming. I also wonder about the idea of making the air/atmosphere cleaner. In the past when the air was filled with crap from meteorite impacts and or volcanic ash , the earth cooled drastically. It seems to me , getting rid of all the air pollution is what's causing global warming.

 

[mdchachi]

I don't worry too much about global warming and do believe weather runs in cycles. I am super happy here in Portland , we had a record winter for very little snow. In school in the early 60's , they taught weather went in 20 year cycles. I believe it's more like 30 year now. I would not be surprised in a few more years people will be worrying about the new "ice age" coming. I also wonder about the idea of making the air/atmosphere cleaner. In the past when the air was filled with crap from meteorite impacts and or volcanic ash , the earth cooled drastically. It seems to me . getting rid of all the air pollution is what's causing global warming.

It's been pretty well established that the main culprit is the rise in CO2 levels caused by human activity. And although there are weather cycles we are well outside of any historical precedent within recorded history in terms of the climate trends we are seeing.

Earth's average land and ocean surface temperature in 2023 was 2.12 degrees F (1.18 degrees C) above the 20th century — the highest global temperature among all years in NOAA's 1850-2023 climate record. It also beats the next warmest year, 2016, by a record-setting margin of 0.27 of a degree F (0.15 of a degree C).

The 10 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade. In fact, the average global temperature for 2023 exceeded the pre-industrial (1850–1900) average by 2.43 degrees F (1.35 degrees C).

Looking ahead, there is a one-in-three chance that 2024 will be warmer than 2023, and a 99% chance that 2024 will rank among the top five warmest years.

https://www.noaa.gov/news/2023-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-record-by-far

 

[Lothor]

I don't worry too much about global warming and do believe weather runs in cycles. I am super happy here in Portland , we had a record winter for very little snow. In school in the early 60's , they taught weather went in 20 year cycles. I believe it's more like 30 year now. I would not be surprised in a few more years people will be worrying about the new "ice age" coming. I also wonder about the idea of making the air/atmosphere cleaner. In the past when the air was filled with crap from meteorite impacts and or volcanic ash , the earth cooled drastically. It seems to me , getting rid of all the air pollution is what's causing global warming.

You're not a climate scientist though. However, because everyone experiences weather, it seems fair game for people to contradict climate scientists based on what they experience in their tiny part of the world.