Most snow around the Hohe Tauern the next 72 hours
And we have lift off! The first snow is visible on the webcams in the northern Alps and Ost-Tirol. It’s not the massive dump yet, but it will keep snowing steadily for the next 60 (as in sixty!) hours. We probably can conclude on Friday afternoon that the northstau regions of Austria and Switzerland got about 15-40 centimeters, locally in the Salzburgerland and Ost-Tirol even 40-60 centimeter of cold fresh powder. Keep in mind that this snow is falling on a mostly iced surface (because of the big temperature drop), so keep looking for places where they had the most snow. The western and southern Alps will be next on Saturday and PowderAlert #25 will start on Sunday!
Poederalert #24 for (in ‘where can you find the most snow’ order):
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Northern Alps east (especially the Salzburgerland), Thursday - Saturday
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Southern Alps east (especially the Ost-Tirol), Thursday - Friday
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Northern Alps central (especially the Zillertal and Fieberbrunn) Thursday - Saturday
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Northern Alps west (especially the central Switzerland) Thursday - Saturday
PowderAlert #25 for (more details the next couple of days):
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French southern Alps (especially the stau regions of the Pelvoux), Sunday-Tuesday
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Southern Alps west(especially the stau regions of the Mt. Rosa, Courmayeur and Ticino) Monday-Wednesday
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Southern Alps central Monday-Wednesday
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Southern Alps east Monday-Wednesday
The southwestern stau might be so big that resorts such as Courmayeur, Andermatt and the resorts in the south of Wallis will get their share of powder as well. If you combine this snow with the snow in the northern Alps, it’s roadtrip time! Who’s in for a good old powderchase?
Current webcams
Short term, snow in the north
The Hohe Tauern are in the clouds today (with clouds from the north and the south). The snow will fall here first and you can expect around 20-35 centimeters of freshies till tomorrow morning. You can expect most of the snow in the Salzburgerland anyway, the snowfall will expand to the northern Alps of Switzerland and the other regions of Austria later today. The north stau will deliver another 5-15 centimeters of freshies till Friday. It will be really cold, with temperatures as low as minus 10 degrees at 2000 meters on Thursday and Friday.
PowderAlert #25
After three days of powder in the northern Alps, PowderAlert #25 will start in the French southern Alps on Sunday. A low pressure area that’s west of Ireland (see the map below) is ready to bring powder to the southwest of the Alps.
This low pressure are is expected in the French southern Alps during the night of Saturday to Sunday and it will be great tree skiing on Sunday. It’s still dry in the other regions of the Alps and you can expect a southern föhn in the northern Alps. The bad thing about this is that this will start transporting the snow (drift snow) and this will cause very unstable conditions in the backcountry. The wind will be strond on Monday and it will be warm temporarily. The freezing level will go up to 2200 meters or higher in the northern Alps.
It’s dumping in the southern Alps at the same time. It’s not really cold anymore, but the snowline will be around 1000-1400 meters in the southern Alps, and that might be lower when the precipitation is intense. The current is turning to the northwest and the French northern Alps and the regions north of the main alpine ridge will be next.
The maps show that it will be pretty cold from 16-23 of March, with snow in the southern Alps, but also with snow in the northwest and north of the Alps from Tuesday. The snowline will drop to valley level. This winter isn’t over yet!
Stay stoked
Morris