Europe Daily Snow
By Luke Stone, Forecaster Posted 1 year ago December 21, 2023
Powerful Storm To Deliver Another Multi-Day Blast
Summary
We are just one day away from the next intense multi-day snowstorm for the Alps. The northern Alps will get absolutely pasted once again, adding to their near record-setting snow depths. This storm will bring strong winds and the coldest air will be east of the mountains, but big snow totals are still on the way.
Short Term Forecast
Today I will briefly review the setup for the big storm this week.
The storm this week is a classic Nordweststau, with a strong northwest flow that will pump moisture from the North Sea into central Europe and the Alps. As is the case with the Nordweststau, there is a strong high pressure off the coast of Spain and a strong low pressure to the northeast of the Alps, as you can see below.
The large difference in the pressure between these two features, nearly 75 MB (1040mb High/965mb Low), will produce the extreme winds that are expected with this storm. An intense jet stream will split the warm and cold air masses associated with these pressure areas, as shown below.
While temperatures will be cold enough for snow at the resorts, the air mass is not unusually cold, and the coldest air will remain east of the Alps. Below you can see the not-quite-arctic air originating from southern Greenland and making its way to eastern Europe.
This combination will likely produce rain or a rain/snow mix in the valleys, and heavy snow across the resorts.
The jetstream and strong winds will slam the moist air into the Alps, squeezing it out as heavy snow over the next three-plus days, as you can see below.
Well, there you have it. This is the atmospheric setup for our next big storm, starting today (Thursday).
No changes to the snow forecast from yesterday, with these totals for the northern side of the Alps.
- Austria Alps (Vorarlberg, Tirol, and Salzberg): .75 - 1.5 m
- Swiss Alps: .5 - 1 m
- Northern French Alps: 25 - 50 cms
The heaviest snow will fall Thursday night through Friday in the French Alps, Thursday night through Friday night in the Swiss Alps, and Thursday night through Saturday in the Austrian Alps.
Extended Forecast
The models continue to show an active pattern to the north, but right now it looks like these will just bring glancing blows to the Alps. There's still time for any of these storms to shift a bit farther south and produce bigger impacts, especially the potential system around the 27th/28th.
Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!
Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow
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