After two short precipitation phases, about 5 to 15 centimeters of snow has fallen in the Northern Alps. The first snowfall reached the most valleys on Monday evening, but turned into some drizzle on Tuesday morning due to the rising temperatures. It also snowed temporarily last night, with a snow line that was about 1300 meters. In the meantime the sun came out in most places. In the coming days it will remain dry and it will become very mild in the Alps. This warm phase will last at least until the middle of next week.
Mostly sunny and mild
The east of Austria will continue to have to deal with more clouds and light snowfall above 1300 meters until the afternoon, but after last night’s short snowfall the sun already came out in large parts of the Alps. With quite a few hours of sunshine it can already get quite warm today. On the north side of the Alps, it becomes more than 10 degrees on a large scale.
Some more clouds
^The forecasts on wePowder are powdered by our friends at Ortovox
Slightly Föhn weather conditions on the north side of the Alps will keep it warm for the next few days. The temperature in the valleys is approaching 15 degrees. More high clouds ensure that it will not be as sunny as it is today. The possible snow tomorrow night that I talked about on Monday has now definitely disappeared from the maps. The front remains north of the Alps, so it will remain dry in most places. Only the extreme northern areas may receive some temporary drizzle, but this will not result in significant amounts. With the near front, the wind in the higher areas is picking up somewhat. Especially on the far north side of the Alps it remains a bit cloudy on Friday morning, but in the course of the afternoon the sun comes out again and the temperatures rise to about 15 degrees.
High pressure dominant
The mercury can also rise above 15 degrees on weekends due to the persistent Föhn situation in the Northern Alps. It has everything to do with a high-pressure area above Southeastern Europe that ensures that precipitation fronts cannot reach the Alps and that a lot of soft air can also be supplied from the southwest. At the moment I do not rule out the possibility that 20 degrees can be reached locally on the north side. The temperatures also rise significantly higher up. The freezing level will be around 3000 meters from the weekend.
Our snow forecast map shows that it will be very dry in the Alps in the coming period. The blue colors you see are the few centimeters that fell last night. In any case, until the middle of next week, we do not have to take precipitation into account. The GFS ensemble for Geneva below confirms this.
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