There's been more heavy snowfall on high Alpine slopes over the past five days meaning that the first three weeks of September – the final three weeks of the astronomical autumn – have seen more snowy days than sunny days at some resorts.
The latest snowfall has brought unexpected deep powder conditions to most of the 10 glacier ski areas that are now open for the 2017-18 ski season. Yesterday the Stubai Glacier, which only opened on Saturday, posted 25cm, of fresh snow, whilst the Pitztal, also only open a few days, said it had had 30cm overnight and posted the picture top.
This morning the Molltal Glacier, which had only re-opened a few weeks ago after being forced to close after three hot summer months melted most of the snow cover on its glacier, reported 40cm of new snow in the past 24 hours.
Because the summer was so long and so hot Alpine glaciers still have some way to go to rebuilt the snow bases they have lost since the end of last season, but the volume of September snowfall to date, though snow is not unheard of at this time of year, has still taken many by surprise.
Snow has also been reported over the past week in parts of Norway, Western North America, the Dolomites, Pyrenees and even dustings on the highest points in Croatia and Scotland – although the latter has been in the news a lot over the past few days because its last remain snow patch which has survived many years looks set to melt away before it gets cold enough for regular snow cover to start building up again.
