There's widespread excitement among the wintersports community as snow has begun falling over wide areas of the Alps.
A live video post on Facebook of snow falling at Val Thorens last night attracted nearly a quarter of a million views, 10,000 likes and 3000 shares overnight.
The snowfall is expected to continue through the next few days and cover most of the Alps, moving eastwards. There have already been three significant snowfalls over the past five weeks, but this is the most widespread and the first in astronomical autumn.
Up to 40cm of snow is possible in some areas but for most it is likely to be nearer to 10cm.
Ski areas scheduled to open over the next few weekends include the Kitzsteinhorn, Solden and Ruka this Saturday and Engelberg and Kitzbuhel on Saturday 13th.
They'll join already open, Hintertux, Kaunertal, Pitztal, Val Senalers, Passo Stelvio, Saas Fee and Zermatt glacier areas where a little powder skiing is possible this week.
Molltal in Austria and Tignes in France were supposed to be open already but are currently closed whilst awaiting snow, so they may now reopen if they get enough snow. The Stubai glacier is also expected to open imminently.