It appears that the delayed start of winter is getting underway at last in the Alps. Following cold temperatures and snowfalls of up to 70cm (over two feet) in the early part of this week, the mid-term forecast is for five consecutive days of snowfall in the Alps next week, with accumulations of over a metre in some resorts.
This week's snowfall has led to improvements at the hard-hit lower lying ski areas like Megeve, Gstaad and Les Gets. The latter had had to completely close its slopes following warm and wet Christmas and new year weather, but had re-opened half-a-dozen lifts and runs by Wednesday.
Now its hoped next week's snowfall could bring season average snow depths below 2,000m back up to around the norm for the time of year (despite doom laden media reports, they were already at the seasonal norm above 2000m).
Temperatures are forecast to plummet from Sunday with the freezing point reaching sea level by the end of next week, with the heaviest snowfall again in the Western Alps where more higher slope depths passed the 2m mark this week. Strong winds are also forecast.
Megeve, Chamonix, Val d' Isere and Courmayeur are all forecast to receive over 1.2m metres (four feet) of snowfall with around 70cm for Morzine and Verbier then smaller but still significant falls in Austria.
Of courses, seven day forecasts for snowfall in the mountains are notoriously unreliable when it comes to precision, but it does look increasingly like we should see low temperatures and lots of snowfall across the Alps next week.