Skiers are thrown around high in the air when strong winds hit resort

• Strong gusts threw the lift system off balance at General’s Mountain ski resort in Xinjiang, according to a report

This is the terrifying moment skiers are thrown around high in the air when strong winds hit the resort.

Strong gusts threw the lift system off balance at General’s Mountain ski resort in Xinjiang, northwestern China, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports. 

The lift had to be stopped while skiers sat several feet above the snow-covered slopes in freezing cold conditions to wait for the storm to pass. 

Several chairlifts can be seen swinging wildly in the wind, with some carrying frightened skiers. 

It comes as China’s capital Beijing has suffered its coldest December since records started in 1951.

Temperatures have frequently dropped below -10C in the city this month.

China has been stung by several waves of extremely cold weather so far this winter.

A Beijing weather observatory recently recorded more than 300 hours of sub-zero temperatures in less than two weeks, according to the state-backed China Daily news agency.

The cold snap has spread across other China provinces, with schools in some areas being forced to shut and transport services coming under strain.

The ongoing cold weather has affected energy supplies in the Henan province, with reports that some heating boilers are out of action.

Meanwhile, ski resorts across Europe are reported to be facing an uncertain future as snow retracts on popular slopes with climate change said to be forcing temperatures to new seasonal highs.

In Morzine and Les Gets, trendy resorts in the French Alps, heavy rainfall caused delays this holiday season, with tourists unable to access slopes until just two days before Christmas.

The duration of snow cover in the famous mountains stretching from France to Slovenia is now 36 days shorter than the long-term average, cutting effective ski seasons shorter and shorter each year, a study claims.

And snow cover in the Alps during key skiing months fell 8.4 per cent per decade between 1971 and 2019, according to research published by the European Geosciences Union.

Cécile Burton, general manager of environmental non-profit group Montagne Verte, told the Guardian: ‘Temperatures in the Alps are rising at more than twice the global average and that is not good news for an industry dependent on snow.’

As many as 98 per cent of ski resorts across 28 European countries are now projected to be at ‘very high risk’ of snow scarcity if temperatures warm by just 4C – and 53 per cent with just a two degree jump, a report in Nature has found.

With Europe relying on the mountains for 90 per cent of its water, the findings have sparked concern among experts, who say snow cover has seen an ‘unprecedented’ decline since the Middle Ages.

Areas around the French Alps, the Carpathians and Finland – among the top destinations for the continent’s 210mn annual skiers – have endured some of the harshest effects of climate change in Europe, research shows.