Powderalert #16 is coming from the South West

Powderalert #16 is coming from the South West
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It was a week to remember. It was cold and the snow reminded me of Canada. Cold smoke blower pow. Deep, light and fluffy.

Cold Smoke Blower Pow (Check my forecast of the 13th of January)?

The air that was coming in last week was really cold, and the air was pretty humid just before that. This combination caused the snowfall to be higher than normal. And this is because of the snow-water ratio. Normally you get one centimetre of snow out of one millimetre of rain (1:10). But with these kind of temperatures you’ll get three centimetres of snow out of one millimetre of rain (1:30), because there’s more air in it. That was the reason I called an ‘cold smoke blower pow’ alert on the 12th of January. PowderAlert #13, #14 and #15 was really, really good. And the snow…was like champaign powder.

Powder @Tre Valli via Powfinder app

Southwest stau

The snow won’t be as cold and light as it was the last couple of days. There’s warmer air coming into the Alps from the southwest and that causes a lot of snow on Saturday in the French Alps (southwest stau) and lots of snow on Sunday in the other regions of the southern Alps.

Snow from the southwest
Snow from the southwest

Warmer air on higher altitude, colder in the valleys

The air that is coming from the southwest is around 10-15 degrees warmer than the last couple of days at 1500 meter. You can notice that especially in the northern Alps on Saturday and Sunday when a strong south föhn will kick in. It will get warmer in the föhn valleys. The temperature won’t rise that much in the French southern Alps and the southern Alps, because of the in the intense snowfall the next 72 hours.

Powderalert #16 is on from Saturday

Warm and humid air is moving into the southern French Alps during the night of Friday on Saturday (check the powderstatus per resort). It will snow heavily in the stauregions of the Ecrins, the Alpes Maritimes and around the Mont Blanc (Courmayeur). Expect 35-70 centimetres of freshies till Sunday night. The snowline will be around 800-1300 meters. The northern Alps will experience a persistent föhn.

In de loop van de zondag breidt de neerslag zich uit naar de rest van de zuidalpen. Dan ook daar intense sneeuwval. Reken tot zondagavond op 30-70 cm vers. De sneeuwgrens schommelt daarbij rond de 800-1300 meter. In de noordalpen aanhoudende Fohn

Long term

It will get colder after the weekend and humid air keeps coming into Alps from the west. It’s not quite clear where exactly this will result in freshies. A new update on Sunday!

Powder advice

If you want to ride powder the next couple of days, hereby my advice:

Friday (sunny, good riding everywhere)

+ Southern Alps east

+ Northern Alps east

+ Northern Alps central

Saturday

++ French southern Alps + Courmayeur (areas with trees)

+ Southern Alps east (sunny)

+/- Northern Alps east (strong southföhn)

+/- Northern Alps central (strong southföhn)

Sunday

++ French southern Alps + Courmayeur (areas with trees)

+ Southern Alps central (areas with trees)

+ Southern Alps east (areas with trees)

+/- Southstau regions of the French northern Alps (mind you, strong southeast föhn)

+/- Northern Alps east (strong southföhn)

+/- Northern Alps central (strong southföhn)

Stay stoked

Morris

meteomorris
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