PA#3: HIGH avalanche danger in the west

After a sunny Thursday follows a snowy and windy Friday. Massive accumulations are expected in the French Alps and western Switzerland. The result is that the avalanche hazard goes up to HIGH. On Saturday, milder air flows from the west into the Alps, followed by a week in which southern winds dominate. In this article:

• Thursday was a powder day
• A lot of snow on Friday and Saturday
• HIGH avalanche hazard in the west
• Rapidly warmer from Saturday to Sunday

Thursday was a powder day

Until Thursday morning, 10-30 centimeters of powder fell in the northwestern Alps. The sun came through with cool temperatures. A great day to ride some powder. Because the lifts are not yet running everywhere, getting up the groomed slopes on a split board or a set of touring skis was easy with a lovely descent in powder as a reward. Arno earned his turns at le Grand Massif.

A lot of snow on Friday and Saturday

But that beautiful Thursday quickly came to an end. A complex system full of active storms is moving towards the Alps. As a result this sends first of all very cold and as of Saturday morning mild air into the Alps. Both the cold and warm fronts push a lot, and I mean a lot of snow to the northwest. With a snowline dropping on Friday towards valley level and going up rapidly towards 1400 or even 1800 meters in the west on Saturday the conditions will be critical. Especially on Saturday.

In detail, it looks something like this:

• Friday: a cold front enters the Alps from the northwest. This results in very intense snowfall. Up to and including Friday evening, about 30-70 cm is expected in the French Northern Alps, the west and northwest of the French Hautes Alpes and the west of Switzerland. Locally this can even be 100 cm or more. But when you travel further east, the amounts will rapidly decrease. Except of the Alpe Adria where 10-30 cm of fresh snows is expected on the border of Italy, Slovenia and Carinthia.

Rapidly falling temperatures, huge amounts of snow that and strong wind above the tree line causes the avalanche danger to rise quickly. The best powder is to be found in those areas where there are 1. trees and 2. there is enough base between the trees. Friday is a treerun day in the western Alps and it could be very deep.

• Saturday marks the transition to milder weather. It will be a strange day with bizarre differences in the Alps. From the southwest mild air moves into the western Alps. In the night to Saturday, this already leads to an increase in air temperature in the French Alps. The snow line then starts to rise towards the 1500 and later even 1800 meters. At the same time, the north side of the Alps is still in colder air. With a north-westerly current, a cold front touches the northern side of the Alps so that in particular the east of Switzerland and the north of Austria will still see colder temperatures during the very early hours of the morning, but there too the snow line eventually rises

HIGH avalanche danger in the west

The milder weather moving in will have consequences for the stability of the snow cover. Lots of fresh snow on Friday, lots of wind and rising temperatures. That will caise produce avalanches. Be aware that the avalanche hazard in large parts of the western Alps will go up to HIGH on Friday and Saturday. Therefore, read your local avalanche message carefully and adjust your plans accordingly.

PA#3 where to go?

Storm, sometimes sun, lots of snow and rising temperatures at the end. Visibility and avalanche danger are serious issues, but you can still score som really nice powder in the coming days:

• Saturday: lots of snow and rising temperatures from the west, a difficult day. Best conditions probably in the Alpe Adria
• Sunday: it gets milder quickly, but humidity drops. Best conditions well above the tree line everywhere in the areas from Alpe d’Huez towards the Arlberg. In short, the entire northwest.

A white Christmas for the Northern Alps?

Next week will be pretty mild in the Northern Alps. The upper airflow turns south with a strong föhn as a result for the Northern Alps. On the north side it is mild with temperatures that can go up towards +10 degrees celcius at 1500 meters. Just right after they had a dusting og snow. It might be clear that this will have consequences for the snowpack at lower elevations. The satelilte image below shows that the Alps are already pretty white, but that the lower regions of Tyrol, the Salzburgerland and Styria in particular are still in need of some extra snow.

But with a week with a strong southern Föhn in the forecast means that this snow cover becomes even thinner. Until December 21st no model calculates snow for this part of the Alps. Only just before Christmas there might be some snow in the forecast. No, the coming week is all about the Southern Alps.

PA # 4 for the southern Alps?

Föhn in the North often means snow for the South. The strong Southern airflow ensures that clouds will be pushed on the south side of the Alps. Therefor during the upcoming week it will snow regularly over 1500-2000 meters. Especially the areas south of the Gotthard and in the Piedmont are going to see a lot of snow.

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Stay stoked
Morris