Fresh espresso, a cornetto and the magical silence of heavy snowfall. All this with slopes full of larches, a thick base and lifties that do everything to open the lifts … Where I am? In the Piedmont. It is snowing like crazy, the holidays are over and it’s time for stress-free powder turns in the country where an espresso costs a maximum of 1 euro and 5 cents. It’s still snowing heavily today and you can expect more cold snow on Tuesday. I would wax up if I were you. This is the treerun alert that should get you going! In this forecast:
- It’s dumping in the Piedmont (and nearby regions)
- Lots of fresh snow on Monday and Tuesday
- PA#10: Where to go?
- Mild and Föhn in the rest of the Alps
- Lower temperatures from Wednesday
- A new storm coming in this weekend
It’s dumping in the Piedmont (and nearby regions)
The word ‘dumping’ has been exposed to inflation in recent years. It’s been used for pretty much every little snow storm. A storm with 30 cm of snow is not a dump. That is knee deep. No, a dump is a storm that brings a meter of snow or more in less than 48 hours. Preferably with not too much wind and certainly no rain. A dump feels bottomless, deep and intense. It’s dumping in the north and west of the Italian Piemonte since Sunday afternoon and it will be continue to snow the next 36 hours.
The Piedmont has something special during such a dump. The intensity of the snowfall is just as intense as the taste of the espresso the Italians prepare with love. The powder we ride is just as soft as the mozarella you’ll get on your panini in the afternoon. The freeriders you’ll meet are just as accessible as the endless faces full of larches. Secret spots are shared just like the smile after a magical descent. Stress seems to be something from another world to Italians, sharing powder seems to be in the genes. The western and northern Piedmont already got 50-80 cm of fresh snow above 1700 meters and there’s much more on its way.
It’s also dumping in the nearby regions, but the snow line is much higher there. It snows heavily in the east of the Queyras, the Haute Maurienne and the south of Wallis. Check out Saint Véran in the Queyras below this morning and if you really want to hurt yourself have a look at the live stream below. But the snowline clearly is higher.
Lots of fresh snow on Monday and Tuesday
Our snow maps show how much snow you can expect the next two days. You can expect heavy snowfall especially on Monday afternoon and evening. The most snow comes down in the western and northern Piedmont today and Tuesday, but the bordering regions will also get a lot of snow. The snowline will be the lowest in the Italian regions due to orographic cooling and will fluctuate between 1100 and 1500 meters. It fluctuates between 1400 and 1900 meters in the French and Swiss areas, which makes it harder to ride tree runs. The snow line will rise a bit in all regions on Monday, but cold air arrives in the Piedmont in the night to Tuesday and then the somewhat warmer snow of today will get a top layer of cold snow. The wind keeps calm on the lower parts of the mountain and so we are dealing with the ideal ‘cold on warm storm’. Just read this article again: this dump scores 5 out of 5 points in the western Piedmont. A perfect storm!
With the incoming cold air on Tuesday it also starts to snow in the southern French Alps and the snowfall can also spread to the north of Switzerland. I think that the maps are now a bit too optimistic about snowfall more to the west and north. I think that most of the snow really comes down in the Piedmont, and that the eastern Queyras, the ski resorts in the Haute Maurienne (on the border with Italy), the ski resorts in southeastern Wallis (on the border with Italy) will also get a lot of snow, but the further north or west you’ll go, the less snow will fall down.
An alternative is the border region between Italy and Austria. You can expect about 20-50 cm of snow in the next 48 hours, but the snow line is higher compared to the Piedmont and the mountains are less high.
PA#10: Where to go?
I’ve already published a list of tips where to go last Friday. That list is still going strong. If you want to ride powder, read this article and you know exactly where to go. The snow will come down until Tuesday, the sun will come out right after.
Mild and Föhn in the rest of the Alps
‘You should have been here yesterday mate’. If you’re a surfer, you know right away that this is from the classic movie Endless Summer. That certainly applies to the west and north of the Alps, where it’s mild with a warm Föhn wind due to a current from the south. The freezing level is between 1900 and 2400 meters due to the warm air from the Sahara. The snow is still wet in a lot of places below 1900 meters and often frozen between 1900 and 2400 meters because of the dropping temperatures at night. No need to go there right now.
Lower temperatures from Wednesday
The current from the south will come to an end on Wednesday, cold air will arrive in the Alps and sun and clouds alternate. Possibly some light snowfall in the east that we will keep an eye on in the coming days, but you’ll ride the best powder in the Piedmont this week.
A new storm coming in this weekend
There’s a new storm coming in next weekend. The influx of the corresponding precipitation is not yet fully known, but somewhere it comes in somewhere between Friday and Sunday. The following is calculated right now:
- Snow for the Italian Alps, but the sweet spot is not known yet, but for now it looks like the Piedmont and Lombardia.
- After that there are two scenarios. 1. It keeps snowing in the southern Alps, 2. There is a snow sandwich with snow for the entire Alps.
wePowder Pro members: thanks for your support!!
We have introduced wePowder Pro this winter. You’ll get extra weather and terrain data for € 25,08 per year (you can not even buy a day pass for that amount in many places). This allows us to further expand our service and we have found a way to express your support to us. Many of the readers of wePowder have done that already and the whole wePowder team and myself are grateful for that. This allows us to keep on developing to make our service even better. Thank you very much!
Are you not a wePowder Pro yet, but do you regularly read the weather forecast or use the services on wePowder? With an upgrade to wePowder Pro you support us, you can express your gratitude and you’ll ride more powder. And it works great for your karma as well. Thanks! Oh, and you’ll get a free 7-day trial when you register yourself on wePowder. No strings attached!
It’s time for PowderAlert #10 and PowderAlert #11 is on its way!
Stay stoked,
Morris