
Updated: 25-12-2024
Source: The People's Livelihood Weekly Magazine Agency of People's Daily
Since November, major ski resorts in Altay region of Xinjiang, China have been opened, local scenic spots continued to see increasing number of tourists, hotels and restaurants have been full, and ski enthusiasts worldwide have gathered here to enjoy the “snow fun”.
Xinjiang, this land bestowed with unique ice and snow resources, is interpreting a huge transformation from “being cold” to “being hot”.
Meteorological departments of Xinjiang have been digging deep into the ice and snow tourism, ice and snow sports and other areas of diversified, personalized meteorological service needs to serve the “Snow Capital of China” construction as an entry point for the the high-quality development of Xinjiang's ice and snow tourism.
Ski enthusiasts in Jiangjun Mountain Ski Resort in Altay City, Xinjiang, were enjoying the “snow fun”. Provided by Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Meteorological Service
Altay region gets to carry out a pilot project to guarantee services for the high-quality development of the ice and snow economy
12 thousand years ago, in what is now Altay, Xinjiang, humans began to glide across the snow with the help of simple wooden boards. It ushered in the history of human skiing.
Altay is located in the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains and the northern edge of the Junggar Basin, right near the geographic center of the Asian continent. It makes Altay one of the farthest regions on earth from the ocean, making it difficult for it to be illuminated by the ocean's warm currents. But fortunately, in this land of continental climate, an “accident” appeared: the Irtysh River gave the Altay Mountains an opening. Cold air from Siberia through this unique channel south. Once the cold air and warm humid air masses meet, water vapor in the southern slopes of the Altay Mountains lifting, abundant snowfall is formed.
The continental climate is an advantage for skiing: it produces “dry cold” snow with an average density of 0.1 to 0.28 g/cm and a water content of only 20%! This type of snow is dry, fluffy and does not cause ice chutes to form on the piste after many skiing sessions.
This year, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) approved and agreed to carry out a pilot project to guarantee services for the high-quality development of the ice and snow economy in the Altay region of Xinjiang, which has injected dynamism into the development of the ice and snow economy in the Altay region.
According to the program, Altay Prefecture Meteorological Department (hereinafter referred to as the Department) will comprehensively start the upgrading journey of meteorological services by focusing on the two major objectives of promoting the modernization of meteorological scientific and technological capabilities and the modernization of social services.
Through the pilot construction, the multi-dimensional monitoring capability of the complex subsurface in the key area of ice and snow economy in Altay region will be improved in order to grasp the local meteorological conditions more accurately. At the same time, it improves the technical level of short-term and medium-term forecasting and warning of snow and ice disasters and target release operations, so that relevant departments and the majority of ski enthusiasts can obtain timely and accurate meteorological information and take coping measures in advance.
In addition, the Department has strengthened the progressive, scenario-based meteorological protection service capacity, orderly promoted the construction of ice and snow scientific research team and tailored meteorological service team, etc., in order to comprehensively enhance the quality of ice and snow economic meteorological protection services.
By 2027, oriented towards ice and snow, the Department will optimize and improve the institutional mechanism of meteorological service, standardize the management of relevant service, establish a graded, gradient-based meteorological monitoring system, improve weather forecast and early warning system, enhance the capacity of weather modification, strengthen the support of meteorological science and technology and human resources, and realize the breakthroughs in the key techniques of scientific and technological innovation of meteorological service, and will also achieve important progress in the snow and ice economic meteorological service, and provide the national relevant meteorological guarantee service with referential results and experiences.
On November 29, 2024, the snow-covered Ahe Highway in Xinjiang's Altay region, the whole forest area was covered with silver, like a light and beautiful ink painting. Photoed by Ardak Bais Khan
Meteorological services further polish the “Snow Capital of China”gold-lettered signboard, and promote economic and social development
Altay region is located in the 40 ° N - 50 °N the world's golden latitude of skiing, which has abundant snow, long snow period, with powder snow qualities. The mountains here are made of heaven, the temperature is favorable, and it is called “the origin of human skiing”. Based on these advantages, in September 2018, under the joint promotion of CMA and the Altay Regional Committee, Altay City was awarded the National Climate Marker of “Snow Capital of China”.
“Snow Capital of China”, this piece of glittering gold signboard instantly made the full release of the vitality contained in ice and snow resources, and fully promote the Altay winter gold ice and snow tourism belt to build, and make Altay's tourism from “one season tour” to “four seasons tour”, from “scenic spots tour” to “whole region tourism”, let “a ice and snow world” become “mountains of gold and silver”. At present, ice and snow tourism has become the most important economic pillar of the Altay region, the 2023-2024 snow season tourism revenue of 11.5 billion yuan.
In recent years, under the impact of global climate change, Altai Mountains snowfall spatial and temporal distribution are uneven, part of the region of the snow on the low side, the development of ice and snow sports exert a certain impact. “The Department around Koktokay, Jiangjun Mountain, Jikepulin of Hemu, Qinggelilang Mountain four major international ski resorts and Altay mountain thousands of miles of gallery as the support of the 'four districts and one belt' winter tourism routes, solidly do the key areas of the mountain snow increase work, and fully escort the development of the ice and snow industry.” LI Yanhong, Director of the Altay Prefecture Meteorological Department, said.
In 2023, the snowfall period in Altay mountains reached 212 days, with the snow period of more than 6 months, the average winter snow thickness of more than 1 m, the major ski resorts reaching more than 1.5 m, and the northern mountains registering more than 2 m. “Snow Capital of China”Altay has hosted International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and a number of domestic large-scale ice and snow sports events, to ensure that the 20 national teams, 43 provincial teams in training, Jiangjun Mountain International Ski Resort, Koktokay International Ski Resort was listed as a national ski training base.
Jaynes Hades, Commissioner of Altay Prefecture Administrative Office, said, “Thanks to the Department's service of ice and snow climate and ecological resources, Altay has succeeded in building the brand of ‘Snow Capital of China’. Altay will optimize the environment for the development of ice and snow meteorological services with the support of CMA, continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of meteorological guarantee services for the ice and snow economy, and let the brand shine more brightly.”
Research and development of a series of winter ice and snow tourism meteorological service products to make“meteorology +” empowered high-quality development ofice and snow economy
In recent years, Xinjiang Public Meteorological Service Centre has taken ski resort meteorological services as a starting point, relying on the development and implementation of local standards, and continued to do well in ice and snow tourism meteorological services.
In October this year, Xinjiang's first ski resort meteorological service local standard “touring ski resort meteorological service specification” was formally released, which clearly stipulates the basic requirements of tourist ski resort meteorological service, service time, service content and service way, and accurately defines 13 basic terms, such as touring ski resort, and stipulates the service capacity, service preparation and the basic requirements for the construction of meteorological observation stations.
Since April 10, 2024, the local standards“ski snow quality risk level”has been in place, from the risk level, discriminating indicators and other aspects of scientific and systematic specification of the snow quality and risk level of the snow, fill the blank of similar standards at home and abroad, whichhas been applied in 9 ski resorts in Urumqi City, Yili Prefecture and Altay Region, and has been selected as a typical case of the implementation effect of local standards in Xinjiang.
“The release of touring ski resort meteorological service specificationcan not only provide standardized and precise meteorological services for mass skiing, but also provide scientific guidelines for meteorological services for the organization of ice and snow competitive sports events in the future.” XU Zhiqiang, Deputy Director of the Xinjiang Public Meteorological Service Centre, said.
According to the regional characteristics, the Department has also developed a series of winter ice and snow tourism meteorological service products. Among them, the skiing meteorological index dervice special report has received wide attention from skiing enthusiasts. The report provides accurate ski time weather forecasts and ski meteorological index, helping skiing enthusiasts reasonably arrange the ski trip, choose the best ski time, so as to better enjoy the fun of skiing, attracting more people to experience the unique charm of thisice and snow world.
“For the ski resort weather characteristics, during the skiing period, we receive the latest weather forecast, live information, as well as the amount of snowfall, wind and other skiing meteorological indexes, excellent snow track conditions, thoughtful and considerate meteorological services every day, so that we can wholeheartedly immersed in the iceand snow sports in the happy. ” SHUI Zhiyou, a skiingenthusiast, who came to Altay for fun, said.
Meteorological departments of Xinjiang continue to enhance their own advantages, further explore the endowment of climate resources, iintegrating meteorological science and technology empowerment, tailored service, and constantly improve the meteorological service system for the high-quality, sustainable development of Xinjiang ice and snow economy from the following aspects.
Form a remote sensing technology application team and a big data application service team, launch scientific research on the difficulties and blockages in the operation of meteorological forecast and early warning services, and strengthen the research and development application of weather forecasting technology to improve accuracy and timeliness.
Enhancing cooperation with scientific research institutes to carry out scientific and comprehensive observation experiments and research on snow accumulation characteristics.
Strengthening the layout and management of meteorological monitoring facilities, established China Ice and Snow Resources Research Base in Kanas and Hemu, implementing a number of advanced atmospheric detection instruments such as new-generation wind profile radar, and building 242 meteorological monitoring stations of various types and 3 weather radars.
Establishing a meteorological disaster defense and emergency response mechanism, strengthening meteorological disaster monitoring and early warning, and reducing the impact of meteorological disasters on ice and snow tourism by cooperating with relevant departments, providing timely disaster information, organizing rescue and coordinating resource deployment.
Meteorological departments of Xinjiang also actively promote “meteorology plus” service, the integration of meteorological services with ice and snow tourism, sports, culture and other industries, through the development of scene-based meteorological services, ice and snow climate resources assessment, etc., to provide strong support for the development of ice and snow economy.
By HE Yuting, WANG Qidi, and BU Yu
Source: The People's Livelihood Weekly Magazine Agency of People's Daily
Editor: JIANG Zhiqing