By Amelia Fraser
When many people think of winter sports and hobbies, snow often comes to mind. But what happens when the snow is no longer around?
Climate change studies have shown that as the planet warms, snowfall will decline, leaving skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports at risk of fading into memory.
Many countries rely on tourism as a major source of revenue, including Canada.
According to the most recent available data from Destination Canada, tourism generated $130 billion CAD ($95 billion USD) in revenue in 2024, accounting for both domestic and international visitors.
Winter is a crucial season for Canada’s tourism industry. Nearly 300 resorts are centered around skiing and snowboarding, making reliable snowfall just as important to the country’s economic infrastructure as tourists themselves.
One resort, Horseshoe Valley Resort, is about 87 miles (140 kilometers) north of downtown Toronto. Marketing manager Sarah Tyler said the resort draws mostly local visitors, many from Toronto, as well as some from the United States.
With peak snow season typically beginning in mid-December and ending in late March, the resort aims for a 100-day winter season.
“This season (2025-26) and the last season have both been very snowy, very constant throughout the whole winter season,” Tyler said. “The year prior (2023-24) was the complete opposite. It was like we were walking around barefoot by March break.”
Horseshoe Valley has adapted to unreliable snowfall by upgrading its snowmaking technologies, allowing the resort to operate during periods of below-average snowfall.
Despite recent snowy conditions, the overall trend appears less promising, according to climate experts.
Xiaolan Wang, a senior research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, has studied changes in snowfall trends across the country.
Her research shows decreased snowfall in southern regions and increased snowfall in northern regions over the past two decades.
In a 2025 study, Wang and her colleagues found that snowfall in Canada is declining 2.6% per decade in southern regions and increasing by 3.6% per decade in northern regions.
Southern and northern regions are defined by whether an area falls below or above 60th parallel north. Horseshoe Valley Resort and Toronto both lie south of that latitude.
While the change is not necessarily rapid, visitors must be more in tune to snowfall conditions when planning travel.
“I feel like guests are looking at our trail report more closely than they might have been 10 or 15 years ago, just to make sure that the money that they’re paying to be here is going to be worth it,” Tyler said.
“You don’t want to be skiing over rocks and grass, right?” Tyler said.
Although natural snowfall is declining at Horseshoe Valley Resort, it’s able to compensate in part via artificial snowmaking.
Resorts farther north, like Banff Sunshine Village Ski and Snowboard Resort, only have two artificial snowmakers and do not yet need to rely on snowmaking to the same extent.
Banff Sunshine is in the mountains near Banff, Alberta, along the Continental Divide in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
The resort sits about 7,200 feet (2,194 meters) above sea level and has a longer winter season than more southern resorts like Horseshoe Valley.
Kendra Scurfield, the vice president of brand and communications at Banff Sunshine Village said its ski season typically begins in early November and runs through late May.
This winter the resort opened on Nov. 2, its earliest opening in 40 years.
Although the snowfall is unusually strong this year, it is not always the case.
Scurfield said that from her experience, snowfall tends to follow roughly in decade-long cycles.
“Our snowfall runs in a seven to 10 year snow cycle, where there’s usually a few less than lower level averages on that and then there’s some higher averages. But, it’s pretty consistent, about 30 feet (9 meters) of snow per year,” Scurfield said.
“This year definitely we’re on track for a snow year above average snowfall,” she said.
At the moment, Scurfield said she is not concerned about snowfall levels. Because Banff Sunshine sits high in the Canadian Rockies, the temperatures there are colder than at lower-elevation resorts.
That does not mean ski resorts will be safe forever.
Wang said varying snowfall is driven by global warming and overall declines in precipitation, including both snowfall and rainfall. Those factors also help explain why resorts are reporting increasingly extreme variation from year to year.
Wang explained that increased water vapor in the air – driven by evaporation from oceans – contributes to storm activity. The more water vapor in the air, she said, the more frequent and intense precipitation can become.
Wang added that despite the occasional extreme seasons, snowfall in southern Canada is expected to continue decreasing over time.