After a snowy weekend in the southern Alps, the start of the week will be fairly calm. This afternoon and tonight, the remnants of precipitation will move further east. There will also be some snow on the north side. From tomorrow morning it will be dry everywhere in the Alps, but by the end of the week new snowfall is already on the weather charts!
Locally up to a metre of snow in the southern Alps
In the end, the models were pretty much right in terms of hotspots for the snowfall of the past few days. In Ticino and northern Piedmont we expected and also saw the highest accumulations, with around 50 centimetres on a large scale. We see locally up to over a metre of snow higher up in western Ticino at Bosco-Gurin and Airolo, among others. Further north, accumulations of course decrease. Andermatt and Engadin still managed to get half a metre of snow, but areas like for example Engelberg and Jungfrau Region received little more than about 20 centimetres higher up in the mountains.
But also in other parts of the Alps where we expected it we see decent accumulations, with in the Carnic Alps (Lesachtal/Obertilliach, Plöckenpass, Nassfeld) around 30 to 40 centimetres. Some more may fall here in the coming hours. In the Maritime Alps, a good amount of snow also fell locally. Limone Piemonte reports some 70 centimetres of snow fell higher up. Here they will open the first ski lifts this Thursday. On the French side, the southern areas also picked up some. Up to the Écrins, about 20 to 40 centimetres fell higher up.
Live footage from today
Time for some snowy images of today:
Avalanche danger!
With these amounts of snow, the avalanche danger has also increased. Therefore, before going, check the avalanche reports carefully. Avalanche danger does not only prevail where it has been snowing a lot. On the northern side, due to last weekend’s Southföhn conditions and associated snow transport, we find (locally) a wind-slab problem, despite the thin snow cover.
Quieter
This late afternoon and tonight it will continue snowing for a while in the Eastern Alps. The snow moves further east during the evening and night. Behind it, it clears up. The Northern Alps, especially southern Germany and the stau areas of Austria and eastern Switzerland, do have to deal with some snow on Wednesday due to a tail of a cold front and a north-westerly flow. However, I do not expect much more than a few centimetres, inneralpine areas will remain dry. However, due to the present cold it could snow down into the valleys.
PA#2 later this week?
The outlook for later this week is positive as, in all likelihood, with the current output of the weather models, a Powder Alert #2 is possible. New precipitation will follow from the southwest during Thursday evening. A depression over the Atlantic follows a northeasterly course towards Spain and France. With the arrival of milder air, the snowline in the southern Alps could possibly rise towards 2,000 metres. In the north-western Alps, it is very likely to remain considerably colder, possibly allowing the snowline here to stay down into the valleys. On the border of these cold and milder air masses, a lot of snow could fall, especially if this border could be more or less stationary over the Alps for an extended period of time which is what the models are currently showing. Further details are still uncertain, but I will elaborate on this snowfall in a new weather report on Wednesday morning.
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Thanks for the PA!