Much cooler air will flood parts of Europe this weekend, ushering in some chilly to downright cold temperatures, at times. While central and western Europe will see much cooler temperatures than, due to the track of the mid-level low pressure system, the coldest air will be across Eastern Europe including the Austrian Alps.

Precipitation is just getting underway in the western Alps, and these showers will spread east during the day. Unfortunately, most of the precipitation will be falling ahead of the cold air, which is typical during a katafront. 

Generally, there are two types of cold fronts, anafronts and katafronts. The most important difference between these types of fronts is where the precipitation falls; ahead of the front or behind the front. The figure below highlight the differences between these two types of fronts. 

Image: Katafront with precipitation ahead of the cold front. 

Image: Anafront with precipitation behind the cold front. 

With our current cold front, the majority of precipitation will fall ahead of the front, resulting in a mainly rain event. Some high elevation snow showers are possible in the Austrian Alps where the coldest air is, but I don't expect more than 5 cms with snow levels around 2500 m while the environment is conducive to precipitation. 

This light high elevation snow will fall tonight (Saturday) through Sunday, taping off overnight as some very cold air settles in. Snow map below.

Things start to get interesting next week, as early as Tuesday, as an Atlantic storms approaches from the west/southwest. You can see several storms approaching Europe from the west, and then moving inland, in the GIF below.

This is not typically a snowy pattern for for the Alps, as the storm track brings southwest winds and with is warmer temperatures. Right now, the best chances for snow with this event will be at the onset, before the arrival of the warm front, and towards the end, as some cooler air arrives. The precipitation type forecast from the American model below shows the series of storms and a potential outcome. 

Additional storms follow on the heels of this first event, but the models are not in agreement on the storm track. The general pattern will still bring storms inland off the Atlantic, but once ashore there becomes a concern for the storm to split. Whether this split occurs or not will change the outcome of these storms. I will have an update on this series of storms soon.

Thanks for reading the Europe daily snow! Follow me @lstone84 on Instagram to track and chase storms all year long. I was able to get out for my first turns of the year yesterday, making some wiggles beneath a beautiful canopy of foliage after 35 - 40 cms in Utah.

Luke Stone

OpenSnow Forecaster