Another storm is in the books, and the northern French Alps are deep once again. I am happy to report that the models haven't changed much in the last twenty-four hours. Another quick but intense burst of snow for the French Alps is on track for Wednesday night followed by a long-duration storm bringing snow from the Pyrenees to all of the Alps.

Snow showers will taper off this (Wednesday) morning as the storm quickly departs. Clouds will linger throughout the day but some sunshine is possible in the afternoon.

The next round of snow begins Wednesday evening, as another system to the north impacts the northwestern Alps. Just like last night, this storm will feature west-northwest and northwest winds, favoring the northern French Alps.

Expect heavy snow from around 7 pm to 7 am, especially in the Savoie and Haute Savoie regions of France and Valle d'Aosta in Italy, where another 15- 30 cms is expected. This storm will be a bit cooler, with snow levels between 1200 - 1500 m.

There should be 5 - 15 cms by Wednesday morning in the Swiss and far western Austrian Alps, with < 5 cms farther east.

The latest snow forecast from the European model is below.

The next and final storm in this series has a bit more complicated of a setup. The models have stayed consistent, finally showing a storm dropping south before reaching the Alps, delivering the southerly winds needed to bring heavy snow to the southern side of the Alps. This region has seen much less snow this Winter, so I hope the models don't back off on this scenario at the last minute. 

Check out the upper-level pattern below for the end of the week. The storm drops south before coming onshore in Spain, and when it gets out over the Mediterranean and Italy, it stalls. It will rotate in a counterclockwise motion over southern Italy, and eventually, it will draw in energy from a weak system near Scandinavia. This upper-level setup will lead to a long-duration storm, but with several wind directions during the event, no single part of the Alps will receive huge totals.

The storm will start out warm, and the first cold front will have a hard time penetrating the Alps. Later in the storm, however, a stronger cold front arrives from the north and really cools things off. 

Below are the slightly modified early snowfall predictions for this storm. I will continue to fine-tune them as we get closer.

Snow totals from Friday through Tuesday:

• Northern French/Western Swiss Alps: 20 - 40 cms
• Southern French Alps: 25 - 50 cms
• Southwestern Italian Alps: 30 - 60 cm
• Central/Eastern Swiss/Western Austrian Alps: 20 - 40 cms
• Central/Eastern Austrian Alps: 10 - 25 cms
• Central/Eastern Italian: 30 - 60 cms
• Southern Austrian Alps: 15 - 30 cms
• Pyrenees: 20 - 40cms

 The latest snow forecast for this storm is below.

As mentioned, we may finally see a break in the action later next week. The models show a ridge setting up, standing in the way of storms until around mid-month.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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