Temps In French Alps Rise Up To 5F In Forty Years - Snow Totals Fall - AFP

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"Temperatures in the French Alps have risen between one and three degrees Celsius (two and five degrees Fahrenheit) in the past 40 years and there has been less snow in recent years, a report by France's national weather service said on Friday.
Temperatures in the Alps are also rising faster than in the rest of the country.

While in the rest of France the temperature has risen by one degree Celsius in the past century, in the Alps above 1,800 metres altitude (5,900 feet) it had gone up by between one and three degrees during the winter period, the report said.

The fluctuations were particularly marked at the beginning and end of the winter and the rises especially evident from the 1980s and 1990s onwards, the report said. "The French Alps therefore appear extremely susceptible to the warming of the atmosphere during the winter period," Meteo-France said.

The climate report, which covered the years between 1958 and the present day, revealed that "the most recent years were in the main deficient" as far as snowfalls were concerned."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2005/050114201949.6y0szcwj.html