BOOM! Another 100 cm of fresh snow for the Alps!

It’s been snowing heavily in the Italian Piedmont since Sunday evening. Between 30-100 cm of fresh snow came down in the last 24 hours and it’s still snowing lightly today. Perfect storm Karl will drop its last snow today and can call itself the first successul storm of the season. Between 20-80 cm came down on average, with locally even 140 cm. In this forecast:

• Up to 100 cm in the Piedmont
• 100 cm is different in the Piedmont compared to the real high alpine
• Storm Karl is not that strong anymore but still delivers 20-50 cm
• Calm weather on Friday
• A new storm from the north this weekend?

Up to 100 cm in the Piedmont

Storm Karl settled south of the Alps on Sunday evening and a classic retour d’est started. A lot of snow came down in the southwest and the northeast of the Po valley. The most snow came down in the southern and central Piedmont, but also the Alpe di Giullia in the northeast and the ski areas on the border with Carinthia received a lot of fresh snow.

The snow line is the big difference between the two. Especially in the southern Piedmont it was snowing deep into the valleys. Check out the measuring station at Limone Piemonte where a meter of fresh snow came down. Think about it. A meter of fresh snow within a 100 kilometers of the Mediterranean.

Between 30-70 cm came down in these regions between Sunday evening and Tuesday, but locally more than one meter. The sun is coming out today, but more snow is on its way!

100 cm in the Piedmont has a different impact compared to the real high alpine

The Stubaier Glaicer, situated in the main alpine ridge in Austria, got around one meter of fresh snow on Sunday and Prato Nevoso and Limone Piemonte (down south in the Piedmont) got around a meter of snow on Monday. It’s a 600+ kilometer drive from the Stubaier Glacier to Limone Piemonte and the ski areas are quite different. The Stubaier Glacier is surrounded by a few three-thousand-meter high peaks and is situated deep in the main alpine ridge. That meter of fresh snow was measured at an altitude of 3000 meters in a ski area where you can mostly find glaciers and rocks. What a difference with Limone Piemonte. That resort is situated around a 100 kilometers from the Mediterranean. Most peaks in the region hardly reach 2000 meters and you can find trees, bushes and some rocks on the alpine meadows. And that’s a completely different landscape. The meter of snow that came down was measured at 1800 meters. That’s a 1200 meter difference from Stubai. You can’t compare the 100 cm in Stubai with the 100 cm in Limone.

Storm Karl is not that strong anymore but still delivers 20-50 cm

Storm Karl brought around 20-80 cm of fresh snow to the Alps the last couple of days and there’s a bit more to come. Although the storm depression slowly burns down, there is still enough power to bring some more snow to the southern side of the Alps between today and Thursday. You can check it out on the map above (click here for details). The snow line is around 1100-1600 meters. It does not snow continuously and there is also room for the sun on the southern side of the Alps.

You don’t have to expect that much snow to come down on the north side of the main alpine ridge and in France the next couple of days. The sun will come out on the Austrian glaciers once in while, so if you want to enjoy the fresh snow, the Austrian glaciers are the best option. And the lifts are running too, which is quite handy ;-).

Calm weather on Friday

We have to say goodbye to storm Karl after Thursday. The weather in the Alps will calm down on Friday. But the question is for how long. The weather models are forecasting a new storm cycle that should start this weekend. And that’s already visible on our snow maps.

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A new storm from the north this weekend?

There might be some room this weekend for low temperatures from the north and lots of snowfall this weekend. Right now the maps are calbulating a northern Stau with the best chances for snow for the north side of the main alpine ridge. A storm depression south of the Alps could be the result of the activities in the north, but this depression will have more freedom of movement than our friend Karl and will move to the southeast. This allows the cold air to go south and this could result for the first snow in the Italian Apennines and Abruzzo.

Stay stoked
Morris