Snow Forecast Summary - 20th October 2011

As widely forecast, last weekend was marked by some major snowfalls at altitude in the Southern French Alps, the Pyrenees and the Western Italian Alps. Accumulations of One and even Two metres of fresh snow were reported in places, with some torrential rain and flash floods at lower altitudes. The avalanche risk has been, and remains, extremely high in affected areas and large, spontaneous slides have been observed.

In Europe the weather quietened down as the week began, whilst in North America the last couple of days have seen a major snow storm hit the far North West (Alaska).

European Weather and Snow This Coming Week

Mild weather continues to prevail across much of The Alps at present, with temperatures noticeably above the seasonal average and little precipitation. Although we are approaching mid-November, mild spells at this time are not unusual and are no indication of the winter to come.

The forecast models are giving hints of a cooling off in a weeks time, and a possibility of further snows for the Southern Alps, but these indications are outside the reliable timeframe. Keep a weather eye, but remember it's early days yet.

Early days? Its nearly the middle of November, and many areas are due to open soon!
This is a very worrying sign for the season ahead. Very.

yep it needs to cool down and start dumping

No need to panic just yet.

Ian Wickham wrote:No need to panic just yet.

When would it be appropriate to panic?
Just like to know as a good, professional, panic needs some planning and diarising to fit in the schedule :lol:

Due out on the 23/12 to the three valleys and already starting to worry, can anyone say for sure that everything will be OK ?

no one can say fur sure unfortunately. i was thinking the same last year when there was a distinct lack of snow in tignes until the end of November

Tony - you're right, there'll be no snow whatsoever in St.Anton and if I were you I'd offload your chalet place for whatever you can get for it (couple of tenners do you?).

Seriously? Get a grip man!

Snow (or lack of) on the 11th November is no indication of the season to come, whatsoever.

A few places got nearly two metres of snow last weekend; much of the Pyrenees got half a metre, and Warren's boys and girls have been skiing powder up in Saas Fee in the last few days. None of which means diddly-squat for the season as a whole.

Last year my lad and I were skiing freshies at 1,000 metres in Samoens before Xmas... bound to have been an epic season then... it barely snowed again until April.

You can guess at what the snow'll be like in a week's time, but everything can change completely in a fortnight.

(but if you're still worried, I don't mind taking your holiday off your hands)

OldAndy - the only time to panic is when you arrive and there's no snow; even then you should only panic if the bar is not open.