Snowiest Weekend of the Season so Far Heading to Europe

What looks set to be the snowiest weekend of the 2016-17 ski season so far looks set to bring 20-50cm to most areas of the Alps and the Pyrenees over the weekend.

The snowfall is snow widespread it is being forecast for ski resorts from Spain to the Czech republic.

Although there has been snowfall in most parts on Europe over the past 10 days, the snowfall forecast for the next 48-72 hours looks to be the most widespread, substantial; snowfall since the big accumulations above 2000m back in early November, now two months ago.

For the Western Alps tomorrow (Friday 13th) looks likely to be the snowiest, with resorts in the East seeing more of a spread of snowfall on Friday in to Saturday.

Ski areas that have not had much so far including the Portes du Soleil, Jungfrau and Grand Massif should be in line for 30-50cm if forecasts prove correct.

Many big name resorts including Engelberg, St Anton, Val Thorens, Courchevel are expected to get 35-45cm of snowy Sunday.

Longer term forecasts for the coming week predict that these totals should double by this time next week, but the longer term the forecast, the less certain it is.

Some resorts in Austria which have had a lot of snow already over the past 10 days have reported more in the last 24 hours and have more forecast. Filzmoos, Flachau and Saalbach are among ski areas that have reported another 20cm of snow in the last 24 hours.

Unfortunately the Italian Dolomites are not currently expected to get any snow, and they need it badly – although as with most ski areas lacking much natural snow, they have successfully opened thousands of kilometres of runs with snowmaking.

Snow is expected in Western Italy however, with around 50cm forecast for Courmayeur (pictured top).

Scaremongering stories in the British national press reported that resorts in Haute Savoie might face a ban on taking water for snowmaking from public water systems (although they would continue to be able to use their own snowmaking reservoirs, if snow did not fall by the weekend. It is not clear if the snow that has fallen earlier this week and the larger snowfalls now forecast will be considered adequate by the regional authorities to offset this threat.

J2SkiNews wrote:
Unfortunately the Italian Dolomites are not currently expected to get any snow, and they need it badly – although as with most ski areas lacking much natural snow, they have successfully opened thousands of kilometres of runs with snowmaking.

Adders, as I am heading to the Dolomites for half term, I was a bit concerned about this aspect of your report. However, as you know any self respecting skier does not rely on a single weather forecast. A minimum of at least 3 different forecasts must be checked daily. Those not forecasting snow must be immediately discounted while whichever one is forecasting the most snow must assume the status of a cast iron guarantee of fresh snow :mrgreen:. On this basis, I reviewed snow-forecast.com yesterday(sorry for mentioning the opposition) and they were indicating snow today for the Dolomites. I see that your own model is now saying the same :thumbup:.

Hopefully, they will get a decent dump shortly to replace the snow cannon snow with the real stuff :wink:.

Wanderer wrote:Adders, as I am heading to the Dolomites for half term

Small point of order, but Mr. J2SkiNews is not me but the most esteemed and revered Patrick of Snow, Lord of all he surveys (and a small part of Loch Ness, where he nests in a Xmas Tree over the summer). I'm just some geezer darn sarf.

...but, yes, snow for the Dollies is on the cards; we do try to be a little more circumspect than certain other well-known forecast sites...

That all said, the current storm is going further and heavier than expected and the next week or two are looking rather tasty! 8)

Yup the forecast for Dolomites improved within hours of my writing this report. Great news as I love it there, hope they get dumped on big time :) Was similar last winter I recall and I arrived in San Martino early March just as huge snowfalls finally arrived.