Snow Forecast for Transfer Day - Saturday 13th February 2016

Here we go again - Traffic and Snow!

If you're travelling to or from the mountains in Europe this coming weekend, you need to pay close attention to the weather forecast.

Heavy Snow is forecast for many areas, particularly the North and West Alps, and we expect to see between 10cm and 50cm over the course of the weekend for much of the French and Swiss Alps, the Aosta Valley and the Pyrenees (where some resorts could see a metre of new snow over 3days).

Heavy Traffic also is in the forecast, as this is one of the main changeover weekends for half-term.

Many areas have already seen heavy snow this week, which is continuing as we write.

There will be a lot of precipitation over the weekend BUT the variable in the mix at the moment is the snow line; it's possible that some areas may see rain as high as 2000m at times, and snow as low as 1000m at others! Road conditions will be somewhat variable, as a result, but you MUST be equipped for snow covered roads into resort - winter tyres and chains.

Be prepared for disruption to road and possibly air travel; food and water to sit out any delays, fully charge all your phone and laptop batteries so you can keep updated, and have everything you need where it's easy to get at...

If you're driving, try to time your travel - and adjust your route - to avoid the likely bottlenecks. From the latest forecasts we're expecting the heaviest snow to arrive on Saturday but affected areas will very likely see snow through much of Friday and Sunday too. We'd advise travelling as early as you can, whether going up or down!

If you've not got chains, then go and get some NOW! Don't wait until you get to Bourg Saint Maurice...

And if you're heading out... be patient; you'll have a great time - there's heaps of snow!

With any luck there will be massive delays, tons of snow will fall all week rendering all lifts closed so no one will get to ski all week in the lovely fresh snow, thus preserving it perfectly for my late Feb trip!!!!

Of course I am joking. Safe travels everyone, have a good week away.

This morning's forecast updates have eased back on the likelihood of "Snowmageddon" for Saturday... there will be snow overnight tonight (Friday) and into early Saturday BUT temperatures look like being mild during the day so the snow line should be between 1600m and 2000m for most of the day; hopefully meaning that the main roads, at least, should remain passable.

It is the first weekend of both the main French and many UK half-terms, however, so heavy traffic should be expected throughout the day and you should be prepared for delays in and around the usual bottlenecks.

Eurotunnel are currently reporting delays of 30 minutes due to an earlier faulty train causing cancellations but it's early days... 8)

Some handy links :-
- Eurotunnel Latest Travel Info

- French Autoroute Traffic info on autoroutes.fr

- Bison Fute gives handy traffic flow forecasts as well as current traffic, although their website could be clearer...

Also available from Bison Fute is a detailed analysis of traffic flows in a downloadable document; it is in French but contains a couple of very useful maps of traffic density and advised North-South routes with likely bottlenecks indicated. Definitely worth printing off if you're driving down;

Covering winter school holidays in France; it presents the expected timing of major traffic problems on the roads during this period. This document is a summary of habitual behavior in winter.

Get it here :- Panorama de l'hiver

Latest forecast update keeps it Wet for Saturday, White for Sunday, BUT...

It is CURRENTLY snowing in Geneva, and Geneva Airport reports 0C at ground level, and flights delayed.

Autoroutes.fr reports "Denneigement" (Snow Ploughs!) already in progress across a wide area :-
- On the A40 Autoroute approaching Geneva from Bourg-en-Bresse.
- On the A40 from Geneva to Chamonix.
- On the A41 South of Geneva toward Annecy.
- On the A43 from Chambery into the mountains.

The snow now underway, across a wide area, is expected to continue through tonight before giving way to rain tomorrow morning. Saturday's rain will likely be confined to daylight hours, so far as we can tell, before reverting to snow late Saturday evening. The snowline will be much lower on Sunday, compared to Saturday, and main routes will be affected in addition to resort access roads.

CAUTION :- although we do expect widespread rain at valley levels tomorrow, local effects and air temperature variation WILL bring snow lower in some places.

For access to much of the French and Swiss Alpine resorts, and the Pyrenees, this weekend YOU NEED TO HAVE SNOW CHAINS WITH YOU. Even if you do make it into resort without using them tomorrow, more snow (and colder temperatures than tomorrow) is forecast for the rest of the week.

I suspect that Moutiers and Bourg will be hell on earth

Coming out of Moutiers towards Chambery last week it was already miles of tailback going towards the Tarentaise in the other direction and that was just the beginning of the French holidays....

andyoneil wrote:I suspect that Moutiers and Bourg will be hell on earth

Yep. One of the main reasons why we're heading north for our Feb half term trip.

bedrock barney wrote:Yep. One of the main reasons why we're heading north for our Feb half term trip.

When we advised adjusting your route to avoid the bottlenecks... we didn't expect you to go to Scandinavia! :lol:

Anyway, here's another useful link for live traffic in the French Alps :-

- savoie-route.fr/

And if you're either bored or easily amused (or stuck at the airport, or on an autoroute), you can watch the snow ploughs going up and down the runway at Geneva every so often... zoom in on flightradar ...

- http://www.flightradar24.com/46.23,6.11/14

A quick update, and reminder for tomorrow's travellers...

Pretty much ALL major routes into/out of the French Alps are now heavily congested :-

Check http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/Realtime-traffic-information.htm

And http://www.savoie-route.fr/

Chains are REQUIRED to access the majority of resorts; if you don't have chains you're unlikely to be allowed to leave the valleys (if you get that far).

Rain has helped road conditions on the major routes, although snow has fallen to low levels in places.

Forecast for Sunday 14th

Check the forecast for your local area / destination but we expect the snowfall to continue through the night and into tomorrow - with colder temperatures tomorrow bringing the snow lower than today.

Traffic should be lighter tomorrow, but snow will be more of an issue so - again - plan your journey accordingly; if you have a plane to catch leave early.

There is now very high Avalanche Risk (Level 4 to 5) across the French Alps and tomorrow morning may see occasional resort road closures while sections at risk of avalanche are made safe.