Forecast
Between reviving depressions over the Atlantic and high pressure over the eastern Mediterranean, a humid and very mild southwesterly flow has developed. This has caused a lot of precipitation in recent days, with regional flooding once again.
What a snowstorm! And this is just the beginning! In the coming days, even more snow is expected due to strong stau against the Northern Alps. The snowline is still quite low as well.
A new season with new powder is coming! Another very warm summer is coming to an end and once again the Alpine glaciers have had a difficult period with large ice losses. Fortunately, the glaciers are getting a much-needed first layer of protection in the upcoming week and we are approaching the (hopefully snowy) winter.
It was a changeable start to the week with snow mainly in the Northwest Alps. The snowline was quite high on Monday, around 1800-2000 metres in most places, occasionally at increasing intensity temporarily below 1500 metres, but a nice layer of snow fell higher up anyway: 10 to 20 centimetres, locally also 30 centimetres.
A nice layer of snow follows over the next 24 hours for the Swiss Alps. It could have been a PowderAlert, but due to the limited amounts in a limited area and the subsequent very rapid warming on Thursday, I chose not to issue a PA.
Heavy snowfall is approaching as I wrote on Saturday, but there are still some uncertainties, also about the developments after Friday. Some rain already follows in the mild air on Wednesday evening, but then the northern Alps will enter a (possibly heavy) föhn situation, while the southern Alps could see a lot of precipitation.
Yes, it’s looking pretty far ahead and so with a beat, but at the moment we do have to look at the medium to long term for a serious pack of fresh snow. Sure, Monday will bring some snow and is a nice refresher, but no large amounts.
After the snow on the southern side, calm returned to the Alps. On the northern side, with a moist western to north-western flow, it still snowed a bit above 800 to 1,200 metres, but later this week it warms up again.
Due to limited internet on my train, I have to keep it short today. A glance at the snow map also shows that we need not expect anything in the form of fresh snow in the coming days.
Currently, calm high-pressure weather with lots of sunshine dominates in the Alps. The freezing level reaches well above 3000 metres. At Les Diablerets in Switzerland, it is +4.6 degrees at 2966 metres at the time of writing (10:40am).