After a dry December the New Year may herald a change in weather conditions in the Alps at last with some heavy snow forecast over the next 72 hours.
The heaviest snow is expected on the Eastern side of Europe's central mountains on Wednesday January 4th, with Thursday 5th looking the snowiest day at most areas further West.
Forecasts are constantly changing and vary from one forecaster to the next but as the dates get closer they seem to become more in sync and several forecasters agree that the Arlberg could get 30cm+ of fresh show on Wednesday and Thursday.
Austria looks set to get most of its snow on Wednesday although with snowfall continuing in to Thursday, for France and Switzerland there may be more snow on Thursday after the snow starts falling on Wednesday.
Some areas that currently have particularly thin cover will hopefully get at least a foot/30cm of fresh snow. Amongst them the Portes du Soleil and the Jungfrau are forecast to collect around 40cm of fresh snow.
The forecast snow is 30-40cm across many ski areas in Europe, including in the Czech and Slovak Republics and in Bavaria.
If the snow arrives as forecast it will be the third year in a row of a significant snowfall after a mostly dry December, although the previous two winters the heavy snowfall arrived on changeover weekend days rather than midweek.