PA#17: From summer heat to some fresh snow

After the exceptional warmth of the past few days, a cold front will bring a solid cooling and a fresh layer of snow. It will get about 15 to locally 20 degrees colder and the snowline will thus drop nicely.

Taking a quick look at two snow graphs in Tirol, we can see that snowmelt at altitudes of around 2000 metres is now in full swing. Judging by the average, this timing is usual, but due to the (extremely) high temperatures at the moment, it is melting very fast this year since the end of March.

In the higher mountains, of course, winter is still in full swing. It has recently been also very warm here, with freezing levels of high-summer values of around 4000 metres, but the snow supply can still be called considerable.

Rapid cooling with snow

After several days with summer temperatures of over 25 degrees in the valleys, the weather change comes on Tuesday with a cold front. First in the Western Alps with a falling snowline from 2000 to 1200 - 1400 metres. The cold front then moves across the Alps from west to east. In Austria, the cooling will come later. Here, with the exception of Vorarlberg, temperatures in the valleys will still rise to values (well) above 20 degrees, partly thanks to föhn. It will start cooling down Tuesday late afternoon/evening here as well. The snowline drops considerably, locally even to 1000 metres. Wednesday during the day rising slightly to around 1400 metres.

On Wednesday, it’s clearing again from the west. With the april power of the sun, you will soon have to look for the north-facing slopes higher up, as the snow elsewhere will rapidly become heavier. As shown on our forecast, all in all, a nice layer of snow could still fall. In a large area, amounts of 20-30 centimetres of snow can be expected, locally also 40-50 centimetres along the alpine main ridge around central Switzerland.

In the southern Alps too, amounts could reach around 30-40 centimetres regionally, but here the snowline will mostly remain above 2,000 metres, with snow possibly only above 2,500 metres by the end of the snowfall. Here the rule is: the closer to the main ridge, the better it will be. The areas east of Adamello / Brenta Dolomiti won’t have to count on much fresh snow anyway. In Austria, we also see that the amounts to the east decrease sharply. Here, the hotspots with around 40 centimetres are likely to be found near the Tyrolean alpine main ridge (Stubai/Ötztal).

Then soon warm again

After that, temperatures quickly rise again, with Thursday already around 10 degrees at 1500 metres. Over the weekend, it gets very warm again, with temperatures in the valleys reaching 25-27 degrees again. The freezing level shoots up again.

Long-term possibly cold and snowy again

The changeable April weather continues for a while, as even further ahead snow chances seem to be on the horizon again. After next weekend’s warm weather, a cold outbreak seems inevitable. This north to northwest flow could potentially bring a lot of snowfall. The snowline could just drop to around 1,000 metres again, even lower is not out of the question. We will keep a close eye on this!