Saturday was ON!
Last night it rained in many parts of the French Alps up to 2000 meters and above. The announced warmth arrived during the day and especially in the French Alps and the west of Switzerland, the temperature rose rapidly and was joined by heavy winds. Both the Swiss and the French have scaled up the avalanche danger to BIG (4 on a scale of 5) for large parts of the Isère, Haute Savoie and western Valais.
It will rain up to high altitude on Monday as well. You can expect significant amounts of fresh snow above 2000 meters that will be transported back and forth because of the heavy winds. Not the most ideal situation. Further east (Switzerland and Austria), the snow line is slightly lower, but the precipitation isn’t that intense. Monday is a day you’d better skip.
The cold air doesn’t really succeed to really reach the Alps and it will last till the end of the day before it reaches the Alps. Unfortunately, most of the precipitation already came down in the French Alps. The wind dies and most of the snow has already fallen. By the time the snow line in the French Alps is really significantly lower the moisture is already squeezed out of the air.
It’s different on the north side of the Alps. The cold air will arrive just after lunch and there is still plenty of moisture available. All of this moisture is forced to come down as snow between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, where the snow line quickly drops from about 1500-1700 meters to 1000 meters or even lower. No huge amounts, but certainly pretty good knowing that the sun will come out on the north side of the Alps on Tuesday.
Where to go… Tuesday
The high altitude resorts in France will get their share for sure, but you have to search for powder at pretty high altitude (over at least 2000 meters) and accept that the wind has had a pretty big influence. Think of La Grave, Alpe d’Huez, Paradiski, Espace Killy and Chamonix. But personally I think the conditions in the Arlberg will probably be better on Tuesday. The cold air will arrive earlier and it’s snowing in the night to Tuesday for a while. . In short, a rapidly dropping snow line and more freshies lower in the valleys. Or the search is on in the regions below:
-
Western Alps Central (resorts with a lot of terrain above 2200 meter)
-
Western Alps North (basically only Chamonix and Les 4 Vallées)
-
Northern Alps West (Engelberg could get pretty good)
-
Northern Alps Central (The Arlberg could get pretty good)
Wednesday: the northern Stau is coming!
A new storm is ready to hit the Alps on Wednesday. A low pressure area is coming down from the northwest and will end up south of the Dolomites. In its wake cold air will come in and it will snow deep into the valleys. First in the Northern Alps (including the French Northern Alps), and later in the Dolomites. Wednesday will be gray, cold and it will snow (from Chambéry in France till the east of Austria).
After that: the northern Stau
In the wake of this storm a classic northern current is generated which will bring snow to the northern Alps. A northern Stau that could last until Friday and leaves little room for the sun on the north side of the Alps. And when that happens, the following regions have the best cards:
Fine tuning will follow later this week. Today we look closely at what is happening in the west and the north of the Alps. I sharpen my advice if necessary.
In short…
Tuesday is nice, but nothing special. It is pretty dangerous because of the wind and many snow above 2000 meters. Only from Wednesday the northern Stau will come in and then it could be pretty deep.
Stay stoked
Morris