Zoomin’ with Zoe: winter weather in Cortina during the Olympics
By CBS Bay Area
The Olympics are in full swing in Italy, with most outdoor events taking place in Cortina and indoor events taking place in Milan.
Obviously, weather conditions impact the outdoor events a lot more than the indoor ones. And as the planet heats up, warmer winters threaten the reliability of the cold temperatures and abundant snow required for the Winter Olympics.
The average February temperature in Cortina warmed more than 6° since the last time it held the winter Olympics 70 years ago, from about 19° to over 27.1°F from 1956 to 2025. This has led to an average of 41 fewer days with freezing temperatures per year.
Warmer temperatures also mean less snow. Despite taking place in the high-altitude Italian Alps, the 2026 Olympics will require more than 3 million cubic yards of artificial snow.
And Italy isn’t the only Winter Olympics site dealing with issues. There was a study done in 2024 that looked at two key conditions influencing the reliability of safe and fair outdoor snow sports competitions: the probability of minimum daily temperatures at or below freezing, and the probability of around a foot of snowpack.
Of previous and future host cities assessed, 87 of the 93 cities are currently rated as having reliable climate conditions, but by the 2050s, only 52 of those cities will be able to host the winter games.
The future of the Winter Olympics is uncertain in a warming climate, which is why weather plays a very important role in the reliability, safety, and fairness of these outdoor winter sports competitions.
