Our latest storm remains on track to bring significant totals to the western Alps through Friday. The deepest totals will fall in the Savoie, Haute-Savoie, Hautes-Alpes, and Isere regions of France, but some significant totals will be possible in the southern French and western/central Swiss Alps too.

The heavy snow now looks to hold off until Wednesday night, but impressive totals are still expected from this storm. In the favored areas of the French Alps, 15 - 30 + cms are expected every twelve hours from Wednesday night through Friday morning. Friday is still looking like the best day in the series, as snow levels will have fallen Thursday night leading to better-quality snow. Visibility should improve later in the day as well. With clear skies on Saturday, additional terrain should open up with the storm total snow.

Overall, totals in the favored areas of the French Alps should be in the 40 - 80 cms range, with some spots even cracking 1 m in Chamonix, La Grave, Tignes, and the Valle d'Aosta in Italy. Elsewhere in the French Alps, expect 30 - 60 cms from the Isere north through the Haute-Savoie and into the Wallis region of Switzerland. 

With southwest, west, and northwest winds as a result of the west-to-east storm track, the eastern Alps will not see as much snow. Totals will drop off in the central Swiss Alps, where 20 - 40 cms are expected on the northern rim with less to the south. Expect 10 - 20 cms in the western Austrian Alps and lesser totals farther east.

Below is the latest snow forecast from the European model which has come more in line with the higher snow totals of the other models.

On Friday morning, a small closed low will come off the Atlantic and cross Portugal and Spain. This will bring a period of heavy snow to the Pyrenees from Friday to Saturday. Most of the range should see 15 - 30 cms before the storm wraps up on Saturday. The above map includes the high-elevation snow from the first storm and the second storm as well.

The next round of snow arriving Tuesday morning has trended a bit stronger, but once again the cold air stays mostly to the north. Still, this could bring a solid 15 - 30 cms to the northern Alps. The deepest snow looks to fall in the Swiss Alps, with similar totals in the far northern French and western Austrian Alps as well. I'll have more details in a future post.

For the middle and latter part of next week, the ridge over Spain remains in place keeping storms generally to the north. The models then expand this ridge to the north, which would really block any storms from impacting the region. This feature could stick around for a while and keep things dry.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow