Sunshine after 200-350 cm of snow

Sunshine after 200-350 cm of snow

The sun is back after a week of storm depressions on the southern side of the Alps. An extensive high pressure area called Uwe will keep the storms at distance the next couple of days. I will give you more information about the snow line, the thickness and the different layers in the snowpack later this week. Information we’re going to need later this season. A dramatic avalanche accident took place in Obergurgl last Saturday, where an old layer of snow turned out to be the weak layer and provided one of the three ingredients for an avalanche to come down, killing two… In this forecast:

  • Lots of snow in the southwest of the Alps
  • There’s a solid base in the high alpine in many regions in the Alps
  • Some flakes coming down in the Piedmont today, but mostly sunshine
  • Lots of sunshine this week with chances on a northern Stau in the east of the Alps

Lots of snow in the southwest of the Alps

Huge amounts of fresh snow came down in the southwest of the Alps since Friday, November 18th. I forecast two to four meters of snow above 2300 meters. Well, we didn’t make four meters, but we got close. South of the Gotthard, around the Simplon, the south side of Monte Rosa, in the mountains in the western Piedmont and the most eastern regions of the Savoie and Hautes Alpes got 200 to 350 cm of snow. Lots of resorts got over three meters of snow. The snowpack is settling and is between 120 to 200 centimeters thick.

Grow of the snowpack in the Piedmont in just 72 hours
Grow of the snowpack in the Piedmont in just 72 hours
Find the Pistenbully
Find the Pistenbully

There’s a solid base in the high alpine in many regions in the Alps

There’s a closed snowpack above 2200 meters in pretty much the complete Alps, thanks to the snowfall of last week. The conditions are really great in the east of the Savoie, the east of the Hautes Alps and the west and north of the Piedmont. The can switch on the lifts here, but they’ll have to dig them out first.

Valfréjus
Valfréjus
Val Cenis
Val Cenis
Running lifts in Val d'Isère
Running lifts in Val d’Isère

Check out the great image below:

(©Laurent Aussel)

Some flakes coming down in the Piedmont today, but mostly sunshine

There are still some clouds bringing snow in the western Italian Piedmont today, but the sun is ruling the rest of the Alps. And it will keep on shining till the end of the week. There’s sunshiene on the peaks and locally some fog and clouds in the valleys. Go up the mountain for your vitamin D fix! Thanks to high pressure area Uwe the weather is awesome above the clouds. However, this also results in the formation of surface hoar during the nights and this could become a serious problem with the next snowfall.

High pressure area Uwe
High pressure area Uwe

Lots of sunshine this week with chances on a northern Stau in the east of the Alps

If you look at the above you can see isobaric lines just on the right of high pressure area Uwe bringing some cold air from the north. Those lines could bring snow to the Salzburgerland and the Steiermark later this week. But a small change could bring the snow further to the east. In the week of December 6th we might expect some rumour in the Mediterranean resulting in storm depressions. But that’s still far ahead. The weather is great in the Alps and some resorts have their lifts running. The next update will be published tomorrow!

Stay stoked. Morris

meteomorris
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