Boom! More snow for the south of the Alps

Boom! More snow for the south of the Alps

After the snowfall, rain and emergency situation on Sunday, SNOWvember throws in a little extra. Although the sun came out on Monday morning, a new Genoa-low now provides more snow. It has become (temporarily) colder again so that it snows deep into the valleys again. The biggest snowfall is in the forecast until Wednesday morning. It will be temporarily dry on Thursday and it will snow again from the southwest from Friday.

The biggest cliffhanger is the temperature. It is true that a rise in temperature is calculated with an incoming southern Föhn for the north side of the Alps, but due to orographic cooling and the resulting cold pits in the inner alpine valleys, the snow line on the south side of the Alps can become very low locally. The biggest question is: will the weekend of 23-24th of November be a powder weekend with fresh snow and sunshine for some visibility?

Lots of snow last weekend

When I looked at the webcams on Monday morning, I had to squeeze my arm. Is it the beginning of February or really mid November? It is really unbelievable what has already fallen.

St. Moritz
Arabba
Lienz
South of the Grossglockner

And sometimes really deep into the valley like here at the Simplon.

But there’s also a lot of wind in and north of the main alpine ridge. Signs of the wind are not to be missed on the Grossglocknerstrasse.

It’s snowing again

Today, Tuesday, it’s snowing again. A Genoa-low is located south of the Alps and pushes snow clouds towards the south side of the Alps again. It has been snowing here again since Monday evening and the following additional amount of snow is calculated up to and including Wednesday morning:

The snow line first lies deep in the valleys, around 700-1200 meters, but rises during the day towards the 1300-1700 meters. The snow below 2000 meters can therefore become very heavy, resulting in falling trees, branches and wet snow avalanches. But the pictures from the south side don’t lie:

Engadin
Airolo
Bosco Gurin
San Domenico

The lower two webcams are at an elevation of 1400 meters. It is just deep winter there.

Slowly a bit milder

The supply of real cold air stops and because the force with which the clouds are pushed against the southern side of the Alps is decreasing, the temperature will rise in the coming days. Thursday there is room for the sun, but a new storm will follow for the southwest and south of the Alps on Friday .

Weekend storm
Weekend storm

On the plot below you can clearly see that there is a snow pulse on the maps again next weekend, but that it is also slowly becoming milder. Orographic cooling will certainly result in a dropping snow line locally again this weekend, but dry snow will only fall above 1800-2000 meters.

In short, snow again on Friday and Saturday, but there is a good chance that the sun will come out on Sunday. That should be the powder day of the weekend. Destination: high-altitude areas, preferably south of the main alpine ridge with substantial terrain above 2000 meters. Tips? They will follow tomorrow, but Sunday and Monday are beautiful days as it looks right now.

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Stay stoked,
Morris

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