It’s mild and wet in the southwest of the Alps and very warm and stormy in the north(east) of the Alps. As I’ve mentioned before, the weather is quite turbulent in and around the Mediterranean. It’s pretty much chaos galore with high pressure north of the Alps and storm depressions in the Mediterranean Sea. The air coming in from the south is downright mild (and sometimes mixed with sand from the Sahara) and snow will only come down on the border between Switzerland and France and the border between Switzerland and Italy at high altitude. Humid air is continuously pressed against the mountains in the northwest armpit of the Po valley and this will result in (wet) snow above 1800-2200 meters. The weather will be quite instable the complete weekend, so the window in which you can ride some fresh (wet) powder with good visibility will be short. It’s not the perfect weekend to go on a tour as well. The north side of the Alps have to deal with a stormy Föhn and the freezing level rises to 3000 meters and higher. This is not the best weekend to ride some powder. You’d better wait for next weekend, because there are some signals that cold air will come in from the northwest. In this forecast:
- Mild and warm
- Wet powder
Mild and warm
Subtropical air from the south is heading to the Alps. The snowline will be at high altitude and the temperatures in the Alps are high! It’s wet and a bit cooler on the south side of the Alps (especially in the Piedmont), but the temperature in some Austrian valleys will go up to 27 degrees. It feels like summer instead of spring. The next days, temperatures will remain above the long annual average and if it remains cloudy at night it’s hard for the snowpack to loose it’s humidity. You can expect some snowfall and clouds especially in the western Alps the next couple of days, and that means you can better go to the Austrian main alpine ridge for a tour. Please keep in mind that the sun is strong and make sure that you’re down in time (higher risk of wet snow avalanches).
Wet powder
The snow that comes down on the highest slopes at the resorts on the border of Switzerland and France and on the border of Switzerland and Italy will be quite good. This means that you can ride some freshies around the top lifts of the Monte Rosa, Tignes-Val d’Isère and Bonneval sur Arc. It’s nothing special, but if you’re around…
Don’t set your expectations too high this weekend and you might be rewarderd. The next update will be published on Sunday!
Stay stoked! Morris