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Melting snow in the High Tatra

So Zakopane. Eastern Europe’s most famous ski resort, beloved by Poles across the world. A spa town nestled in the high Carpathian range, population 30,000 with a million visitors annually, peaking at holiday times.

And this January, no snow.

We’ve heard it before. We know that glaciers in the Alps are retreating by tens of metres every year.

It’s happening elsewhere too.

In Zakopane, they tell how a strange, unseasonal wind blew in off the high peaks this winter, and with its warm breath melted the snow away and brought the driving rain.

They explain how the wind – they call it the ‘halny’, like the Fohn in Switzerland – rushed through the valleys and down the mountainsides so that even the snow machines had to grind to a halt.

People did their best to ski, but it was a bit of a lost hope. The Presidential trip to open the latest cable car passed without much fanfare, in the circumstances.

They murmur that it was just the same last January. But before that, never.

They wonder, put on a brave face, keep the hotels open.

And they watch as the tourists leave town.