What a dump! The entire Northern Alps have been covered with a thick layer of snow by the Nordstau. In the coming days, especially in Austria, more snow will fall, so that locally as much as one and a half meters of snow can fall! Due to the large amounts of precipitation and a strong wind higher up, the avalanche danger increases considerably (see SLF and for Tyrol).
Snow quantities
After three days with heavy snowfall we can check how much snow has fallen exactly. More than a meter of snow has fallen on a large scale between the French Northern Alps and Tyrol. No less than 117cm of snow has fallen on the Seegrube near Innsbruck in the past three days. More than a meter of snow fell in the Kleinwalsertal and the snow cover has grown from 130cm to over 250cm since Saturday evening. There was also a lot of snow coming down on the entire north side of the Swiss Alps, as you can see in the map below. Locally more than a meter of snow came down. Also in the French Northern Alps, about 50 to 80 centimeters of snow fell on a large scale. The map below of the snow depth changes also clearly shows that parts of Switzerland have received more than a meter in the past 3 days. It should be noted that a lot of snow has already fallen in the northwestern Alps in these 72 hours.
More snow on its way
^The forecasts on wePowder are powdered by our friends at Ortovox
Even today, a considerable amount of snow can still fall. At the time of writing, it’s snowing like crazy in Innsbruck. Another 20 to 30 centimeters of snow could fall, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some more would come down. In the course of the afternoon the precipitation decreases slightly and it can temporarily clear up between the snow showers. The snow line in the valleys is about 800 meters depending on the intensity of the precipitation.
Tomorrow, too, the Northern Alps have to reckon with snow showers all day long, which, especially in Austria, can be heavy with a lot of snow in a short time. To the east of Innsbruck, another 20 centimeters can fall. While the high-pressure area above the British Isles is exerting more and more influence on the Western Alps and it will probably clear up over there. It can snow a little longer in the Eastern Alps. On Friday, little will change in the weather picture, with snow showers again. The snowfall for the Piedmont that I mentioned in my weather report for Monday is unfortunately quite limited. Instead of the 30 to 50 centimeters, it now seems to be about 10 to 20 centimeters until Friday afternoon.
wePowder guide is here!
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