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Initially, rain fell up to relatively high altitudes, but today snow is finally returning to lower elevations in more places. Clearing skies are moving in from the west, treating us to scenes of a winter wonderland.

In France, Switzerland, and Northwest Italy, a fresh layer of 10 to 30 centimeters fell in the past 24 hours. In the coming days, almost the entire Alpine region will be affected by fresh snow: time for Powder Alert 4!

This impressive 1000+ meter couloir is tucked away in a valley in Switzerland. After scouting the area with a drone, everything appeared to be in good condition for the descent. However, nature had its surprises in store for us once again.

The French Alps received a nice refresh at higher altitudes in recent days, but the snow cover is still clearly below normal for the end of January in almost the entire Alps. This is expected to improve in the coming week, although we should also expect rain below 1500 to 2000 meters.

In the coming days, several very deep depressions will move over the Atlantic Ocean towards the British Isles. There, they will cause hurricane-force winds, on the continent a mild southwesterly flow that will affect the Alps.

Before we look ahead to the upcoming snowfall, let’s first reflect on the small Retour d’Est of the past few days. As expected, the snowfall amounts were significantly lower than initially forecasted, but this doesn’t mean nothing fell.

Snow for the Southwestern Alps with a Retour d’Est setup! But, to get straight to the point: don’t take the amounts in our forecast too literally this time, as they seem likely to be considerably lower.

Today, a front brings some fresh snow to the eastern Alps. After that, sunny high-pressure weather will return, but for how long? An upper-level disturbance (cold pool) is moving from Poland to Southeast Europe today.

Nothing new under the sun. Chris already mentioned in his Sunday weather report about the dominant high-pressure system, bringing plenty of sunshine and, so far, relatively low temperatures.

After an active week with multiple disturbances, we are now dealing with a prolonged high-pressure situation. The result is more and more sun and, in the long term, rising temperatures.