There's four storms lined up for the next week plus with abundant snowfall possible. The first storm will kick things off this afternoon and continue through Tuesday night, and packs a solid punch. A quick hitter, storm #2 impacts the Alps from Wednesday afternoon through early Tuesday morning. Things really get going with storm #3, occurring from around Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning. With little or no break, storm #4 continues the heavy snow potentially through Tuesday.

Check out the upper level pattern over the next week below. You can see the storms moving through the Alps nearly non stop during this period.

Storm #1 will start warm, with fairly high snow levels across France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. Expect 25 - 50 cms above 2400 m, favoring the French, Swiss, and Austrian Alps, before the snow taper off Tuesday night. A strong cold front will lower snow levels to around 1700 - 1900 m from west to east starting Monday night. Snow map below. 

Storm #2 will bring light snow from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning. This results from a weak disturbance out ahead of the main event also known as storm #3. 

Ok, onto the major storms. Storm #3 will start around Thursday afternoon and continue through Saturday morning. Snow levels will not have risen too much since the last storm, and will start around 2100 m. Snow levels will really crash during this storm, starting Thursday night and falling to 900 - 1200 m by Friday morning. The heaviest snow will fall from Thursday through Friday, with some serious accumulations. Expect 40 - 80 cms above 2100 m. YES! Snow map below.

This storm will bring extreme winds to France and Spain, but should remain west of the Alps. 

Finally, right on the heels of storm #3, storm #4 arrives. Snow levels may rise around 300 m at the start of this storm, but nothing too scary. This round of snow will favor the French Alps, with lesser amounts in Switzerland and especially Italy and Austria. I will save the snow totals discussion for this event until the next post.

The long range models show another storm for the middle of next week, and then the possibility of this active pattern continuing into the second week of November. Let's hope it continues!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow