Easter Monday is this year marked by the (brief) return of winter in the Alps. An arctic outbreak from the north is going to provide a perfect Nordstau with 30 to 50 centimeters of snow. Before this weather change arrives, today will still be a sunny and dry day in much of the Alps.
Sunny start of the day
^The forecasts on wePowder are powdered by our friends at Ortovox
The day still starts dry and above all sunny throughout the Alps, but soon clouds follow from the northwest in the late morning. The cold front is approaching slowly but surely, but before it passes, it can become reasonably mild once more. On the north side, the temperature in the valleys can rise to around 15 to 17 degrees. Higher up, the northwest flow is already getting stronger during the course of the day, making it noticeably fresher. This icy northwesterly wind will also persist in the coming days during the snowfall.
Cold front
The cold front is going to cause a strong cooling in large parts of Europe. Last night, for example, the front already caused the snowline in Scotland to drop to sea level. It will also manifest itself in the Alps during the evening by a rapidly decreasing snow line down to the very lowest valleys. It remains unusual to see snow falling to the lowest days now while temperatures above 25 degrees were recorded a few days earlier, but for early April this alternation of full spring weather and an arctic outbreak is of course not unusual.
So the first wave of snow follows during tonight for the Northern Alps. The Nordstau areas such as Kleinwalsertal and Engelberg will receive 15 to 25 centimeters of snow until tomorrow morning. Closer to the alpine main ridge, the amounts will of course be a bit less. In the morning, the intensity of the snowfall will decrease. In particular, the inner Alpine areas and wide valleys may see some clearing during the day tomorrow, partly due to the showery nature of the snowfall. Only the Stau areas on the north side will continue to receive light snowfall. The Southern Alps will be dealing mainly with a Nordföhn phase, which will keep it mostly dry. Only Slovenia will be able to benefit from the snowfall later in the night with up to 30 centimeters of snow. Here too, the snowline will soon be down in the valleys.
In the course of tomorrow afternoon, the snow chances increase again in the Northern Alps and snow showers move in. The snow showers can be heavy with graupel too. With a strong wind that will blow in the coming days, Triebschnee on top of this possible layer of graupel can locally create tricky conditions. In the evening the snowfall intensifies again, bringing another 10 to 20 centimeters of snow in the Stau areas.
Persistently chilly with snow chances
Wednesday remains another cold day with snow chances in the Northern Alps. From the west, the air pressure increases during the day, so the snowfall in the evening hours will be limited to Austria. While it may snow all the way through the day, an additional 20 to 30 centimeters of snow may possibly fall during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in areas such as Loser - Altaussee and Hochkönig. While these areas will benefit slightly less in the next two days, this will therefore be made up for on Wednesday and Thursday. Over the course of Thursday, the high pressure area takes over and we enter a drier phase.
wePowder guide is here!
Winter is here, but it’s still not sure what this season will look like. It’s always time to start dreaming and preparing. Whatever it will look like, the wePowder Guide is available again. We’ve extended the pre-order price of € 45.00 (excl. shipping) for a while. This thick book of 400+ pages is in stock and will be delivered to you as soon as possible! Thanks for your support!