Snowfalls of up to 65cm in the past 24 hours have been reported in the French Alps, with many of the country's biggest resorts reporting 40-60cm of snow since yesterday. Pic above shows a skier heading out this morning at Chamonix.
In most cases these are the largest snowfalls since the season started there months ago and with some areas reporting more than 1.5m of snowfall since last Thursday, in some cases ski areas have had more snow in the last 5-6 days than since the start of December.
There have been large snowfalls too at ski resorts in Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany, but the biggest reported snowfalls from the current storm have been in France.
Resorts reporting more than 50cm of fresh snow include Bonneval, the Chamonix Valley, Val Thorens, Tignes and Val d'Isere and Meribel. Most other leading French resorts have reported 30-50cm since yesterday.
Les Arcs now says it has had more than 1.5m (five feet) of snow since last Thursday, La Rosiere across the Tarentaise valley nearly 2.4m (eight feet)
All the snow – along with, at times, violent winds and warm temperatures – have led to operational issues at many areas with some or all lifts and runs shut at quite a few areas.
The off piste avalanche danger is also reported to be extremely high and this morning an avalanche that began in an off piste sector at Tignes crossed a marked piste, reported to be busy at the time as it was one of the few runs open. The resort reports there were no casualties but that the resort has now closed all its ski runs for the time being because of the conditions.