The fantastic start to the season continues, with two major storms lined up to deliver tons of snow to the Alps. Check out the satellite image below showing the extensive snow cover across the Alps. 

It's only getting deeper from here. It will be dumping most of the time through Monday. The heaviest snow will fall Friday night and Sunday morning, with a bit of a lull on Saturday. This is our first major Nordweststau of the season, with prolonged flow out of the northwest slamming into the western Alps, as you can see below.

This will favor the Savoie, Haute-Savoie, and Isere regions in France, and the Wallis and Vaud regions in Switzerland, where .75 - 1 m is expected. 

I am still expecting a surge of subtropical moisture and warm air all the way from the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of a strong jet stream stretching across the Atlantic. You can see that below.

Temperatures will start to climb Sunday morning and continue to do so through Tuesday night, with snow levels peaking close to 2700 m overnight. A cold front will start to lower snow levels Wednesday morning as the next storm approaches. 

The next storm will arrive in two waves. The first will quickly cross the eastern Alps, before a stronger system takes a more southerly track across the continent. This will favor the Austrian and Swiss Alps initially. The storm taking a more southerly track is still a ways out, so the location of the heaviest snow for this event is still in question. 

I am still thinking this could bring another .5 - 1m of snow in Austria, with 30 - 60 cms in France and Switzerland. These totals will be updated moving forward. 

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow! Check out this short clip from a few weeks ago 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