Ax 3 Domaines, French Pyrenees, picked up some snow this week...
Fresh snow across much of the northern hemisphere.
The Snow Headlines - 2nd March
- Further huge snowfalls in western North America - up to 12 feet in 7 days.
- Snowfall across the Alps, but more in the Pyrenees.
- Pyrenees 7-day snow totals pass 60cm (2 feet)
- World's deepest snow passes 7 metre mark for the first time this season.
- Resorts including Aspen announce extended ski seasons.
- Ski areas in south-eastern USA end seasons early due to warm weather.
Snow in the forecast for many regions...
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World Overview
March and springtime (by the meteorological measure of the seasons) are here and once again it's the Western side of North America that's reporting incredible snowfalls, with up to 12 feet (3.5 metres) reported in the last seven days by some resorts by Lake Tahoe. Meanwhile, Mammoth Mountain to the south has now gone through the 7 metres snow depth mark, the world's deepest.
There's an improved picture for much of Europe too, with cooler temperatures and most areas seeing some snowfall after a warm, dry latter half of February.
Although many areas just saw a few inches of snow, the biggest falls – of up to 50cm, were posted down in the Pyrenees as well as up in Scandinavia and some Austrian centres posted as much as 40cm from multiple snowfalls over the last seven days. Then parts of the southern French Alps and Western Italy got up to 20cm.
Austria
Austria has had a good week, on the whole, with up to 40cm of fresh snowfall reported over the last seven days, much of it falling in the first few days of this week, although conditions remain unsettled. The problem is that after a temperature drop to below freezing on Sunday-Monday, it is getting warmer again so low-lying valleys have seen some rain on the snow, although it has been snowfall for higher slopes.
Conditions will be similar through the weekend with heavier snowfall expected next week.
France
Following a month with very little snow to report we've finally seen at least a few centimetres of snowfall across French ski slopes in the last week, heaviest along the Italian border where some centres saw as much as 10cm. It's not a lot but it was at least a bit of a refresh and was accompanied by falling temperatures on Sunday/Monday which saw the numbers get back below freezing.
The weather has warmed a little now but remains cooler than it was with highs in the 4-8C range in valleys but staying below freezing and dropping to double digits below above 2000m.
Most French ski slopes remain open and Tignes/Val d'Isere continue to post the continent's deepest snowpack, up 2cm this week to 272cm.
Italy
A mixed week of weather in Italy with pretty much the whole array thrown at the country's ski slopes - sunshine, cloud, snowfall, rain at lower elevations and strong winds at times.
The good news, other than the fresh snow which has reached almost everywhere to a lesser or greater effect, is that the freezing point has dropped back down and most of the main areas continue to have everything open, despite some rather thin 20-40cm lower slope depths for many.
The heaviest snowfalls were at the start of the week in the northwest with up to 30cm reported in the Aosta Valley, Cervinia was one of the big winners with 25cm in 24 hours on Monday/Tuesday. Elsewhere it was more like 5-10cm although ski areas in the Apennines reported double that.
Switzerland
Swiss ski centres have had their share of snowfall and some colder weather too.
Europe's highest slopes above Zermatt have finally seen the base depth go in the right direction, up 10cm on a week ago after snowfall earlier this week, even though it (in common with bases across most of the Alps), remains well below average – especially for March when the depth stats would normally be peaking ahead of the start of the spring thaw.
Despite this though, and with much of the snow cover down at resort level melting away, most of the main Swiss ski centres still have 85-95% of their slopes open thanks to judicious snow management.
Scandinavia
Western Norwegian ski centres again saw the most snowfall over the last seven days with Myrkdalen near Voss getting up to a 2.7m base, just a few centimetres off Europe's current deepest.
In the north, it's been more about temperature than snowfall with lows in the -30s (Celsius) in Lapland to start March.
The region's largest resort, Are in Sweden, has the most terrain open, with 75km of its 85km of runs currently skiable.
Pyrenees
It has been a good week in the Pyrenees with a return to lower temperatures and snowfall - in fact, more here than in any other part of Europe except perhaps Scandinavia.
The snowfall started at the end of last week with 10-40cm accumulations going into the weekend, the heaviest reported on the French side. It was drier over the weekend but then snowfall returned for the final days of February meaning some areas have had several feet (60cm)in total, the most this year. It's obviously a great refresh ahead of the spring ski season.
Scotland
Scotland has seen some very cold nights over the past week, with -8C reported in Glenshee, but there have been no significant snow showers to replace the lost snow and afternoon highs of +8C have dealt with what thin falls there have been on lower slopes, so we are left with just nursery areas open at Glenshee, The Lecht and Cairngorm with some hike-to touring terrain open up high on Scottish hills.
Eastern Europe
Bansko started spring with a nice coating of fresh snowfall on Wednesday morning, reporting 20cm of fresh snowfall up high and giving powder conditions to begin the month. Although it is still battling back from the poor start of the season, nearly all runs are now open, including the long run back down to the village.
Further north Jasna in Slovakia remains fully open.
North America
Canada
Another good week across Canada with temperatures staying well below freezing.
Ski areas from Quebec in the East to British Columbia in the West reported fresh snowfall and temperatures in the freezing to -20C range, a little warmer than last week. The Rockies saw some of the biggest accumulations, with several resorts reporting up to 40cm of fresh snowfall.
Most Canadian resorts are 100% open.
USA
The US has had a remarkable week for snowfall with most of the country seeing more big accumulations, resorts on the Pacific Coast quite exceptional ones.
Here the base at Mammoth Mountain has reached 7.6 metres while The Palisades reported over 12 feet of snowfall in the last week. At the peak of the storm earlier this week resorts were posting up to three-feet (90cm) of snowfall per 24 hours!
It has now calmed down a bit, but there's still a lot of digging out to do and some smaller resorts say they won't re-open until the weekend.
The Rockies have seen more good snowfalls too, with Jackson Hole posting five feet more in the last five days which would be more of a stand-out if it were not for the Californian stats.
There's been snow on the East Coast too, with resorts in New England that were most troubled by warm and wet weather this winter getting a good refresh for the start of spring.