Next snowfall: 2017

Next snowfall: 2017

The waiting game for the next dump has begun after the last snow came down in eastern Austria. A lot (and that’s a lot) of resorts can use some fresh snow. Mountainbikes outnumber the skiers and snowboarders at the end of December in some resorts. But hey, don’t shoot the messenger. We’ll just have to be patient and have to wait for the next dump. We may want to control everything, but winter goes its own way. In this forecast:

  • Powder in the eastern Alps
  • The Big Change: 3rd and 7th of January

Powder in the eastern Alps

PowderAlert #3 brought a lot of fresh snow to the east of Austria. Up to 70 cm of fresh snow came down in the Salzburgerland, Styria and Nieder- and Oberösterreich. That resulted in a lot of great images.

70 cm of fresh snow in Loser
70 cm of fresh snow in Loser
Fresh tracks in Loser
Fresh tracks in Loser
Thanks from Tauplitz
Thanks from Tauplitz
Tauplitz in the morning
Tauplitz in the morning
Dachstein glacier
Dachstein glacier

You can still find some powder in the east of Austria tomorrow and we’ll just have to wait for the next dump. You don’t have to expect any significant snowfall the last two days of 2016. The sun will shine a lot.

The Big Change: 3rd and 7th of January

Hopefully we can start riding powder in the beginning of 2017. There are two storms visible on the maps that I will keep an eye on the next couple of days. The first storm should hit the Alps on the 3rd of January, the second storm on the 7th of January. Both storms are on the maps of the major weather models. The storm that’s scheduled for the 3rd of January doesn’t bring enough snow for a PowderAlert, but it will snow deep into the valleys in the northern Alps. There’s no base over there below 2000 meters, so this will be the first layer of snow.

The 3rd of January storm
The 3rd of January storm

The weather models don’t agree on the storm that should hit the Alps on the 7th of January. I’ll keep watching both the American and the European model to see what will happen. Hopefully it will result in PowderAlert #4. Right now, the American model is forecasting snow for the French and Swiss Alps and the European model is sending all the snow to Switzerland and Austria. As you can see, nothing is sure yet!

The 7th of January storm
The 7th of January storm

You can find the best snow in the Alps in the east of the Alps or in the Italian Piedmont right now. You’re basicly skiing or boarding on artificial snow in all the other resorts. There are on average twenty PowderAlerts per season. Some are complex, some are easy, but they all share the fact that at least 25 cm of snow must come down. 25 cm of the white magic stuff where we can leave our signature in. So be patient and save your euro’s right now. 2017 will be the year!

Stay stoked. Morris

meteomorris
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