It was great to see some big snow totals across the Alps and snow levels falling to base elevations. This storm continues to bring light to moderate snow through early Saturday morning, and by Saturday afternoon another storm will crank up the snow once again. Smaller storms may keep the action going for the early part of the week with more action possible starting around Thursday. 

We'll have some light snow Friday night and early Saturday morning, with the next system arriving without much of a break midday or during the afternoon. This will be the first Weststau of the season. The heaviest snow will fall Saturday night through Sunday afternoon, and the French Alps will be favored due to winds mainly out of the west. The areas below typically do best during a Weststau with predominantly west winds, and it will be no different this time.

The Savoie and Haute-Savoie, including Chamonix, La Rosiere, Les Arcs, Val Thorens, and La Plagne, should do very well. The Wallis region in Switzerland, including Les Diablerets, La Fouly, and Arolla will do well also. The upper level low pressure system will be in the perfect position (shown below) to deliver westerly flow through most of the event, and with snow levels around 1500m, it will pile up fast. 

The favored regions in the French Alps should see 50 - 100 cms, with 40 - 80 cms in the Wallis region of Switzerland. The Valle d'Aosta region of Italy can do well during the Weststau also, so expect 30 - 60 cms for this event. Amounts decrease as you move south and east from these regions, and the totals will be much less for most of Austria and leeward areas of the French, Swiss, and Italian alps. Check out the snow forecast from the European model below.

In the long range, the models keep the pattern active through the next ten days, with storms every few days starting around the 10th. None of these look like major storms at this time, but there's still some time for those to trend stronger. Either way, its great to see some low elevation snow and an active pattern to start out the month and build a solid base across the Alps.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow! Check out this short clip from this past weekend in Aspen, where nearly 3 feet of snow fell in twenty-four hours. Follow me @lstone84 on Instagram to track and chase storms all winter long!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow