What's that coming, over the hill... BIG Snow Incoming

For the past 7-10 days, pretty much all the forecast models have been indicating some significant Alpine precipitation this week.

The leading edge is now within the 48 hour window and Tuesday and Wednesday look like seeing some very substantial snowfall in places. Although still on the mild side beforehand, temperatures will drop significantly as the snow falls and it's likely to be below 1500 metres over a wide area.

The main event looks like it'll be to the South of the main Alpine ridge, with the Aosta Valley, Dolomites and Southern Alps firmly in the firing line, but there's a possibility of some big snowfalls coming in to the Northern French Alps and central/South Switzerland as well.

For a bit of fun, check our French, Italian and Swiss snow pages and sort the main table by the "48 hour" column (amount of snow expected in the next 48 hours)...

French Snow Forecast - Isola and Auron could see over 1 metre in the next 48 hours.
Snow Forecast for Italy - Alagna and Champoluc are looking at anything up to 2 metres of snow by Thursday.
Swiss Snow - Saas Fee and Zermatt sitting pretty.

Obviously, all usual caveats apply - it may not happen quite as forecast, and it all might melt before Xmas but it's going to be fun to watch.

We'll be digging out (ho ho) some prime webcams to keep an eye on later... enjoy the snow, er, show.

Anything for St Moritz David?

Zermatt - bring it on!

I don't think Snow-Forecast.com is predicting snow down to 1,500m, more like 2,000 to 2,200m but that still picks up a lot of the resort. Almost 1.5m predicted for the coming week!

Yippppeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Tony_H wrote:Anything for St Moritz David?

"Only" about half a metre over the next 24 hours Tony... 8)

Swiss Meteo have issued severe weather and avalanche warnings for the area a little further South (Saas Fee, we're looking at you) and it looks to be absolutely chucking it down there and in the Aosta Valley overnight tonight and into tomorrow.

Seriously, getting on for 2 metres of snow over the next 48 hours in places.

bedrock barney wrote:I don't think Snow-Forecast.com is predicting snow down to 1,500m, more like 2,000 to 2,200m

We'll see, but from the forecast at the moment the snowline looks to be below 1700m by the end of tomorrow and lower by Thursday morning in many places.

Much will melt, of course, but there's a lot coming down!

Have a read of this!

http://wepowder.com/weblog/5411/PA-%231-Up-to-five-meters-of-snow%3F

I don't wish to sound ungrateful but the J2Ski "Powder Alarm" emails have now become a running joke on my Facebook page. I post the "Powder Alarms" and then we all fall about laughing as we watch it rain, or you get an inch of sleet instead of the 50cm predicted etc.

The snow alerts are about as much use as a chocolate radiator. Was the same for the whole of last season. The gaps between the snow reports and reality are hysterical.

munich_johnny wrote:I don't wish to sound ungrateful

I shall ban you at once... :lol:

Our forecasts most certainly are NOT always right... though do bear in mind if you're watching it rain then it's snowing further up. 8)

The perennial issue with big snows is that they tend to be localized (often along the boundaries between, e.g. a moist, mild weather system and a cold, dry one)... so if the system shifts just a little then all the snow will fall in one valley and not another.

So far, it's looking like this snow event is more widespread and lower than forecast - we didn't think it'd go lower than 1500m (snow-forecast had the snowline well above that) but it's currently starting to settle around Morzine... and it's most certainly snowing heavily in the Aosta Valley, as forecast.