No snowfall all week

The Alps already got a couple of very sunny and mild days, but there is more to come. Due to the föhn conditions in the next days the temperatures will gradually increase up to 20 degrees on the northern side of the Alps. But first, the Northern Alps will have to deal with some cloudy conditions today, like here at the Zugspitze. Even some patchy drizzle is possible. It is likely that this negligible amount of precipitation is the only precipitation the Alps will get in the next 7 days.

Cloudy morning

This morning, on the northern side of the Alps, a cloud layer will cover the sky. Especially the most northern regions will have to deal with cloudiness into the early afternoon. It has everything to do with a front located just to the north of the Alps.

In the line of Basel to Munich this front will cause some rain during this morning. For the Alps, this area with the strongest precipitation is too far north, but some drizzle is still possible. Due to the inflow of some moist air from the Mediterranean Sea, large parts of Piedmont and Ticino are also likely to get some light precipitation during this morning. Like in the Northern Alps, this won’t cause any substantial amounts of snow higher up. Above 1500 meters 1 or 2 centimeters are possible.

In large parts of the Western Alps it has cleared up already, like here at the Bellevarde in Val d’Isère. During the afternoon, also the other parts of the Alps will clear up and receive some hours of sunshine. On the northern side of the Alps I expect temperatures up to 15 degrees in the valleys.

Predominantly dry

Also during the weekend and the days after the weekend we will keep this sunny and dry high pressure weather pattern. As you can see in our map of the accumulative snowfall in the Alps for the next 6 days it will be almost completely dry for the Alps. The blue colours in Austria match the forecasted drizzle of today, but as stated before, this drizzle can also occur in the northern regions of for example Tyrol and Vorarlberg and in Piedmont and Ticino.

Increasing south föhn

^The forecasts on wePowder are powdered by our friends at Ortovox

Due to the increasing strength of the southerly föhn (provided by meteocentrale.ch), it is likely that the peak of this warm weather event will be on Sunday, with temperatures up to 20 degrees in for example the Rhine Valley. Freezing levels will be higher than 3000 meters and possibly even reach 3500 meters. Simultaneously, the Southern Alps will have to deal with some more clouds and maybe even some light precipitation again. It is likely that Piedmont and the Julian Alps will get some drizzle, but for the other regions in the Southern Alps I don’t expect any snow or rain.

Avalanche danger?

This period of fair weather will have a positive impact on the weak layers, which are still present throughout large parts of the Northern Alps. The high pressure weather pattern will also have a stabilizing effect on the wind-drifted snow. For more detailed information, always check the local avalanche forecast.

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