Will there still be skiing in Scotland by 2080? A data scientist crunches the numbers

Readers with long memories and more than a passing interest in the future of Scottish skiing might recall a Final Words interview from 2016 with the scientist Michael Spencer, then a member of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who was carrying out research into long-range snow forecasting. Back then, Spencer’s primary interest was in determining whether it was possible to predict if the winter ahead was going to be a snowy one or not by looking at something called the North Atlantic Oscillation (and no, I’m not talking about the band.) His latest piece of research, however, is an attempt to project further into the future – way further – all the way up to 2080 in fact. Will people still be skiing in Scotland in 2080? Probably. Based on Spencer’s findings, however, it might be more of a niche pastime than it is today.