It was a great opening weekend across the Austrian Alps for several resorts, with very deep low-density pow two days in a row. Hopefully, with a deeper base, you can catch some terrain openings today (Monday). Or, you can chase to the French/Swiss Alps, with two storms on the way this week. 

These storms will bring snow from Monday to Wednesday and then Thursday through Sunday. Let's get into the details of the next storm first.

Snow returns to the French and Swiss Alps this (Monday) afternoon and quickly spreads into Austria as well. The heaviest snow will be focused on the French Alps to start, with winds out of the west, but will quickly shift to the northern French Alps and Swiss Alps as the winds turn more northwest. There is plenty of cold air pouring in from the north, as this upper-level low originates from thre same area as the previous storm that just buried the Austrian Alps. Snow levels will be around 1000m so this snow will be very light. 

The best days to ski/ride will be Tuesday with big overnight totals and Wednesday as well, with heavy snow Falling all day on Tuesday and perhaps some sun poking through on Wednesday. 

My thoughts on snow totals haven't changed much since yesterday, if anything the storm looks a bit deeper. Nordweststau favored regions of the French and Swiss Alps should see 40 - 80 + cms from Monday through Wednesday. Expect 15 - 30 cms heading south of the Isere region in France, and less the more south you go. Totals drop off as you approach the inner-alpine area of Switzerland with the northwest winds.

The Tirol and Voralrberg regions od Western Austria, who just got nailed, should see another 30 - 60 cms with even higher amounts in the northern parts of the region. As you move farther south and west totals will drop off, but another 15 - 30 cms is generally expected across most of the northern side of the Austrian Alps.

European snow map below, pretty consistent the last few days.

Snow will taper from west to east starting Tuesday night and ending Wednesday morning in the Austrian Alps. If I were there, I'd have made my way to the northern French Alps after riding poder in Austria Sunday morning. 

There are some seemingly minor but actually significant changes to the mid/end of week storm. The upper-level low is not tracking as far south in today’s models, which will lead to less warm air being drawn in, and a colder storm overall. This will also result in a shorter period of southwest winds and longer period of west/northwest winds. 

Below is the upper-level pattern on Friday, but the left side is from yesterday's model run while the right is from today (Monday). You can see the low pressure west of the Alps, but with today's run the low is not digging as far south, resulting in more westerly winds.

The shift in the track of the storm will keep things cooler, but it will still be warmer than the first storm of the week. Snow levels will peak around 1800m on Thursday, falling to 1500m Thursday night and then 1200m on Friday. Snow levels will be a bit lower in the central and eastern Swiss Alps as well as the Austrian Alps.

Overall, these changes will bring more snow to nearly all of the French and Swiss Alps, but will also put the bullseye on the northern French and western Swiss Alps, which will see the most snow during the early week storm. The Austrian Alps will see lower totals from this event. This more northerly track with a shorter period of winds with a southerly component will also reduce the snow totals on the southern side of the Alps in Italy and Austria. 

Around Monday December 4th, the models show a storm dropping south just west of the Alps, but there is disagreement how close the storm is to the Alps when this happens. Too far west, and the storm will favor the Pyreenees. With all the action in the next seven days I will leave this storm for future posts. 

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow! Check out this short clip from last week in Utah, where 22" of snow fell in thirty-six hours. Follow me @lstone84 on Instagram to track and chase storms all winter long!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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