The dump of the past few days brought a lot of snow in both the Northern and Southern Alps. Surprisingly, the snow line was a few hundred meters lower than expected, especially on the north side. For example, it even turned white temporarily at 575 meters in Innsbruck. This October snow in Innsbruck was last seen in 2013. Today there is still some snowfall in the Northern Alps above 1500 meters, but from tomorrow it will be over and we will end up in a warm phase. Especially at altitude, a lot of warm air is supplied from the southwest.
Some snow for the Northern Alps today
After a short sunny intermezzo yesterday, rain came in again on the north side of the Alps this morning. This time the precipitation didn’t come with cold air like the day before yesterday. The snow line is approximately 1500 meters above sea level. The inneralpine areas and the northern French Alps will only have snowfall above 2000 meters. The wePowder [forecast map] (https://wepowder.com/en/forecast) is completely up-to-date again, but unfortunately no longer has the beautiful colorful colors as last week. At altitude there is about 20 centimeters in the forecast for the Arlberg region, but in the rest of the Northern Alps the amounts of fresh snow are limited.
Freezing level rising
^The forecasts on wePowder are powdered by our friends at Ortovox
There will still be some residual clouds in (the east of) Austria from which some precipitation can fall tomorrow morning, but it will already be very sunny (under the influence of increasing air pressure) in the Western Alps. It has been on the maps for a while, but the warm weather now actually starts pushing. In the coming days the Alps will be on the eastern flanks of depressions, sending a large wave of warm air from the southwest towards Europe. This is also clearly visible in the weather maps below. The jet stream (at 300 hPa, about 9 kilometers altitude) deviates from its zonal pattern just off the European mainland, deflecting depressions to the north.
A large portion of warm air is supplied from the southwest, especially at altitude, which will bring the freezing level to a high summer value of almost 4000 meters. These values are certainly not unusual for October, but will also significantly affect the good snow conditions in the high alpine.
Under the influence of weak high pressure it will remain mainly dry for the next few days. Some precipitation could still reach the Alps next week in the course of Tuesday, but according to current weather maps, don’t expect large amounts. Further details are still uncertain, we have to wait and see.
Opening weekend Andermatt
The 1000 lucky ones who could secure a place for the opening weekend in Andermatt will therefore have to deal with very warm and sunny weather. Last week’s winter conditions will disappear rapidly. Although the base on the Gemsstock is already fine after the snowfall of the past period, you do not have to expect any dry powder. Read the SLF avalanche forecast for the current avalanche danger in the Swiss Alps here.
wePowder guide can be ordered again!
Anyway, the preparation for the season to come has started. Whatever this season will turn out to be, the wePowder Guide is available again in the pre-order. For € 45.00 (excl. shipping costs) this huge book of 400+ pages will be delivered to you in mid-December!