Lack of snow puts annual skiing championship under threat.
On Saturday, 26 December, special commission of the World Skiing Federation (FIS) and representatives of Croatian Skiing Association will decide whether the Skiing World Cup races Snow Queen and Snow King on Sljeme near Zagreb will take place. The decision could be known on Saturday after 2 pm, but it is more likely that the final decision will be taken perhaps two days later, on 28 December, reports Vecernji List and Sport.hr.
At present. the situation on Sljeme Mountain is not great: the snow has been put in piles, while temperatures hover around 10 degrees Celsius. High temperatures which have been recorded in Zagreb during the last few days should last until the beginning of 2016. The two races are scheduled for 3 and 6 January, so the chances are not great.
On Sljeme, there are 34 snow cannons ready and waiting for the temperatures to fall below minus four degrees Celsius, which is required for artificial snow to be made.
“This year, the races will probably not take place”, said yesterday Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić. “Forecasts say that until Sunday the temperatures will be between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius during the day. We cannot produce snow out of nothing. We have all the necessary facilities and water, but unfortunately the weather conditions do not support us”, Bandić said.
In the 11 years during which the World Cup races on Sljeme have been taking place, the only year when races were not held was 2014, when weather conditions were more powerful than the will of Croatian organizers. “We are trying to save these piles of snow. We put the snow in piles so that the warm weather could not melt it. At the end of November, we had the ideal temperatures, we were working at full speed and produced reserve snow which we are now protecting, but there are still parts of the slope where we do not have any snow. We simply do not have enough snow to cover the whole slope”, Igor Žiljak, leader of the snow-making crew, said a few days ago.
