5-20 cm of freshies for the high alpine

A very weak front will start making its way to the Alps on Tuesday night. A combination of humid, but mild air will reach the north and northwest of the Alps. You can expect 5-20 cm of freshies above 1700-2000 meters between Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening. The snow will be dry above 2200 meters. The wind from the west will be strong. Most snow will come down on the highest peaks of the pre-Alps. For detailed maps and more info click here.

In this forecast:

• Jetstream goes around the Alps (with a big bow)
• Snow for the northwest of the Alps
• Thursday will be a powder day (well, a small one)
• You won’t find the best powder on earth in the Alps at the moment

Jetstream misses the Alps

This is quite the same situation we had in November. The jetstream is moving around the Alps with a big bow. I wrote this article a couple of weeks ago, but it’s still standing strong. The result is that the storm depressions don’t reach the Alps, but reach western Norway or that a northern current is taking the storms to Russia, the Black Sea and Turkey and Georgia. Snow that would came down in the Alps in a ‘normal’ situation. The weather in the Alps is on lockdown.

Snow for the northwest of the Alps

A weak front reaches the northwest of the Alps tonight. Because a real active current from the north is missing this front doesn’t hit the Alps, but scrapes it a little bit. Additionally, the supplied air is mild for the time of year. The result is that the snow especially will come down in the pre-Alps and because of the high temperatures for peaks higher than 2000 meters. It will rain below 1700 meters. A small cold front will bring some cold air (and a west northwestern current) on Wednesday, so the most snow will fall north of the northern Swiss alpine ridge, Vorarlberg and western Tyrol. Less snow will come down further to the east and to the west and south of the main alpine ridge (as in: Italy) it won’t snow at all.

Thursday will be a powder day (a small one)

Warmer air will reach the Alps on Wednesday afternoon and it will stop snowing by then. I hope that most of the clouds have disappeared, so that the combination of warm air, clouds and moisture does not lead to a small greenhouse effect. At this moment it looks like that the clouds will resolve in the night to Thursday. You can find some good snow on Thursday in:

• the high alpine in the Berner Oberland (5-17 cm of freshies)
• the high alpine around the Arlberg (5-22 cm of freshies)

Especially the region around Lech can expect a nice powder day on Thursday. The weekend will be warmer and right now there’s no winter on the maps for next week either…

You won’t find the best powder in the Alps

If you really want to ride powder, you shouldn’t go to the Alps. There are much better options in place like Canada, Japan or western Norway. Even Turkey and Georgia have great snow conditions at the moment. If you don’t have the time to go to other places, hang in there. Winter will come eventually.

Stay stoked
Morris