Whilst it has been wet on the coast and inland, the weight of the freezing rain on Sierra Nevada had buckled supports on the chair-lift supports.

To quote Wikipedia: Freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air hundreds of metres above the ground, and then freeze upon impact with any surface they encounter, including the ground, trees, electrical wires, aircraft, and vehicles… and chair-lift towers!

This water, freezing upon contact, forms thick ice, building up until something gives. Consequently Tower Nº23 belonging to the Telesilla Laguna, buckled, leaving the ski lift unserviceable, probably for what’s left of the skiiing season, unfortunately.

This is not something that occurs every winter because the last time that it happened was back in 1989 when three supports for the Telesilla Stadium buckled at their base. In fact, there’s nobody working up there nowadays who has experienced this weather condition before.

Back to today and this latest episode has also caused damage to other lifts, where the haul rope has come off its line, such as the Telesilla Monachil, with fifteen towers and several rocker arms affected; the Virgen de las Nieves, with eight towers affected; the Stadium, with six (four of which have already been repaired) and the Zayas T-bar, with one pylon affected.

On the other hand, the Leonardo, Marta, and Nils gales have caused sharp temperature fluctuations and rainfall across nearly all altitudes of the resort in recent days (reaching up to 3,000 meters on Wednesday) which has accelerated snowmelt.

As a result the final section of the El Río ski-slope (about 50m of its 3.2 km) has been degraded as a stream of water is currently flowing through the middle of the ski slope.

Sadly, for what was promising to be an exceptional ski season, the ski resort had to close for twelve of the last 17 days because of high winds and other weather adversities.

However, despite all this doom & gloom, maintenance staff have been working flat out on the slopes, lifts and snow cannons, so that the it is hoped that the  Borreguiles and El Río ski slopes will be operative from today.

(News: Sierra Nevada, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Freezing Rain Damages Ski Lifts, Accumulated Ice, Maintenance Crew, Snowmelt

news, andalucia, granada, sierra nevada, freezing rain damages ski lifts, accumulated ice, maintenance crew, snowmelt