We had to wait for a long time, but finally the Northern Alps are getting some snow after some very
dry and mild weeks. A cold front has approached the Northern Alps which will give some snow
throughout the day. The Southern Alps will first have to deal with a couple of hours with föhn
conditions, but during the evening colder air is approaching from the east and it will start to snow a
bit as well.
Saharan Dust
^The forecasts on wePowder are powdered by our friends at Ortovox
The Alps had to deal with increased concentrations of Saharan dust in the air during the last couple
of days. It was definitely not as extreme as the event one month ago when the snowpack in the
Western Alps got covered by a thick layer of sand, but it caused some headache for the weather
models. It created very colourful sunrises, but also a stronger cloud cover than expected. The
weather models are still having some problems with the calculation of the cloud cover in these
conditions, because the Saharan dust particles can support the formation of clouds. With the passage
of the cold front and the northerly flow the Saharan dust is not present anymore.
Cold front
The first precipitation entered the northern Alps already around midnight. After some dry and even
slightly sunny hours during the early morning we will see more continuous precipitation for the
Northern Alps throughout the day. It will continue to snow until midnight for large parts of Austria. In
Switzerland it will already start to clear up from the west during the evening.
Especially the northern Stau regions like the Karwendel and the Dachstein will receive a fair amount
of snow. Up to 20 or even 30 centimeters is possible here. The inneralpine valleys will get less, but to
be honest, after such a long dry spell even this 5 to 10 centimeters for the inneralpine region is a nice
gift. The snowfall is accompanied by quite strong winds higher up in the mountains, so wind-drifted
snow can locally pose an avalanche risk.
Initially, the snow line was with values of about 1200 to 1500 meters quite high, but during the day,
due to the incoming colder airmasses, this snow line will drop. Especially on the northern side in the
Stau areas it can snow into the valleys. The inneralpine regions will have to deal with a snow line of
about 800 to even 1200 meters.
North Föhn
On the southern side of the Alps, like here in East-Tyrolean city Lienz, it will initially stay dry due to
the North föhn. The main Alpine ridge is only about 30 kilometers away, but still almost no clouds are
present at the moment. This föhn situation won’t last long, because also some parts of the Southern
Alps can expect some precipitation from this afternoon and evening on. It is due to the fact that large
parts of the cold northerly flow are forced to go around the Alps. The flow around the eastern part of
the Alps will curl towards the west and fill the Po Valley with colder and moist air.
Especially the Piedmont and the most southerly regions of the Southern Alps are affected by this precipitation. With about 5 to maybe 10 centimeters above 1000 meters it won’t be much. Only in
the northern parts of the Piedmont it might snow up to 20 centimeters locally until tomorrow afternoon.
Sunny intermezzo
Apart from the snow in the Piedmont and some remnant clouds of the front, Saturday will be quite a
sunny day for large parts of the Alps. Especially the Eastern Alps will see lots of sunshine during the
weekend. Due to some moist air advection from the Mediterranean Sea, the Southern French Alps
will receive some centimeters of snow during the day and evening.
On Sunday, large parts of the Southern Alps will clear up. Again, the best chances for sun are in the
eastern part of the Alps. At the same time, the Western Alps have to deal with more cloudy
conditions and even some snow from the west. These light snow showers won’t give more than a
couple of centimeters above 1500 meters. The inneralpine regions will get significantly less and
might even stay dry. Also on Monday these showers will be spread across the Northern Alps.
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