Some snow will come down this weekend, PowderAlert #10 is coming up and the long-term even shows snowfall for the French Alps and the southern Alps. Check the video above for all details.
Snowfall on Saturday, some sunshine on Sunday. The higher temperature is a point of attention. The freezing level will fluctuate somewhere around 1200-1400 meters in the free atmosphere. This usually means a snow line around 1000 meters, but in the valleys where the cold air lingers it just snows deep into the valley. Rain or snow is therefore very local and very difficult to predict. In any case, you can assume that the snow that falls is a lot more moist and heavier. This falls on a cold snow cover with some snowed in hoar. Therefore, assume that the avalanche danger that is now 2 or even 1 in large parts of Austria and the east of Switzerland will rise fast towards 3. Nevertheless, you can ride fresh (but a bit humid) powder on Sunday. Do not expect cold smoke blower pow, but good old humid alpine snow with a touch of wind. Yes, because don't forget about that wind. It will provide fresh storm slabs above the tree line. The regions for Sunday morning:
A cold front flows into the Alps from the northwest on Sunday afternoon. The focus is primarily on the French northern Alps and the west of Switzerland. The snow will expand to the entire northern Alps during the course of Monday. It becomes considerably colder. Because some relatively milder air flows into the Alps on Sunday, there is enough moisture available to ensure significant amounts of fresh snow from Sunday to Monday and on Monday itself.
It's ON on Monday between the trees in:
Tuesday starts sunny everywhere. Cold powder and sun. Most snow in the northwest, some cold powder on top of the heavier snow in Austria from Saturday. These are the regions:
The avalanche danger becomes a concern in all these regions. There will definitely be a lot of surface hoar. There is heavier snow coming down first and light snow coming down later. Especially that heavy snow on the layer of surface hoar will become a point of attention. The wind will also be strong above the tree line from time to time. Enough elements that will sharpen the avalanche danger in the coming days. And then there is always the old snow problem in the west of Switzerland and the French Northern Alps.
You can certainly ride great powder until Wednesday. Then there is another storm in the forecast that will take care of snow. All sorts of scenarios are now running and it is difficult to say something about it (yet).
Depressions are increasingly finding their way to France and the Mediterranean. The jet stream is obviously choosing a different course, but whether this will result in a lot of snow in the near future is still not sure. A new update with more news on Sunday.
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Stay stoked, Morris