The video above is from Mammoth Mountain in California and they got quite a lot of snow the last 36 hours. The endless drought in California has therefore come to an end and with all the fresh snow they can open their lifts on Thursday. On their website the countdown has started. They had around 12-30 inches (that’s around 30-75 cm) of freshies, which is even more than the predictions on our snow maps. This is typically Mammoth. It snows like hell or it doesn’t snow. They normally don’t do little dustings.
It’s quiet different in the Alps. Except in the (Southern) French Alps it’s dry. Around 2-10 cm, locally around 15 cm of freshies came down in the south yesterday, but the humid air was followed by mild air. It was even more interesting that the snow line managed to drop belwo 1500 meters. because there was still quite a lot of cold, dry and heavier air was caught in the valleys. The following movie from Puy Saint Vincent yesterday shows that perfectly:
But today, the warm temperatures are back in the French Alps. The high clouds above the valleys are clearly visible and the warm air is coming in. A huge contrast with the images from Mammoth Mountain in California.
It’s mild in the rest of the Alps as well and it will stay like that for a while. With daytime temperatures towards 20 degrees, we can talk about an Indian summer in the Alps. Between the 9th and 11th November, some precipitation is expected in Austria, but it will only snow at the highest peaks. Only from the beginning of the 3rd week of November, serious storm depressions are expected again in the vicinity of the Alps. The bad news is that this is still far away. The good news is that these storms have been visible on the maps for the last couple of days. The change will come, but it is still too early for details. Until then, the current weather provides ideal conditions for an epic surf trip to France, northern Spain and Portugal.
If you’re not into surfing, save your euro’s or head to North America and Scandinavia. They’ll get some more snow the next couple of days.
The next update tomorrow.
Stay stoked!
Morris
Replies
Your blanket statement ‘lots of snow in the US’ isn’t accurate. Decent amount of snow across the western US making for a promising beginning to the upcoming winter, with California hoping the trend continues. Is better statement.
@@Jamie, you’re right. But looking back and looking forward the conditions are pretty good in (some) parts of the US. Especially compared to the Alps. And there is another storm in the forecast.
It’s still raining most places in the PNW as of Saturday afternoon, 14/11.
Baker picked up a little yesterday but it’s raining now.
Snow is sticking above 5000 feet, but that’s well above the base of all lifts in the PNW.
According to our forecasts, the snow level is supposed to oscillate quite a bit between 3000 to 8000 feet in the next week.