Uri Friedman passes alongs the above graphic from a report (pdf) on global warming and Sochi:
By mid-century, according to pessimistic projections, only 10 of these cities will be climatically suitable to host the Games. By the end of the century, the field will be winnowed down to just Albertville, Calgary, Cortina d’Ampezzo, St. Moritz, Salt Lake City, and Sapporo.
Note also that Sochi is listed as cold enough for the Games right now, meaning the International Olympic Committee didn’t necessarily make a mistake in awarding this year’s Olympics to the subtropical, Black Sea city. In fact, the authors suggest that new technologies like artificial snowmaking have made the IOC more willing to choose warmer host cities (the IOC explicitly states that it considers how countries that submit bids plan to adapt to global warming). But the researchers are suggesting that Sochi 2054 probably won’t be happening.
Brian Merchant covers the heat wave in Sochi:
“The fact is that this is part of a larger pattern,” climatologist Michael Mann writes me in an email about Sochi’s heat, “one in which we are breaking records for all time warmth at nearly three times the rate we would expect from chance alone so far this decade.”
Indeed, according to Russian climate data for the region stored at Climatebase.ru, the average temperature during the period from 1940-1960 was 14˚C. Since 2000, that’s risen to 14.3˚C. According to a temperature record that goes back to 1898, the average temperature in February was 6˚C, or 42˚ F. Today, the mercury is in the low 60s.
The Dish 