Several rounds of snow are on tap for the Alps and Pyrenees this week, with the potential for a major storm later in the week. The first storm will bring a solid thump of snow and has been trending a bit deeper over the last few days. Later in the week, two strong storms are slated to slam the Alps and Pyrenees back to back. 

The first storm in this series continues on Monday. Temperatures started warm so expect some rain up to 1800 m during the day. Snow levels will gradually fall throughout the storm reaching 1500 m by Tuesday. Across the northern Alps from France to Austria, expect 10 - 20 cms above 1500 m and 5 - 15 cms lower down after the rain changes to snow.

In the higher elevations of Switzerland and western Austria, some locations should see up to 30 cms. Check out the latest snow forecast from the European model below.

We'll have a short break on Wednesday before the first of two stronger storms arrives Wednesday night.  Both storms look to take a similar track through central Europe, delivering significant snow to the northern and southern sides of the Alps. Each storm will feature a nice push of cold air as well, so snow levels won't be an issue much of the time. This is a modified arctic air mass arriving from the west, however, so they won't be the coldest of storms. 

Moderate to heavy snow will fall across the Alps and Pyrenees through Saturday morning. There likely won't be a break in the action before the next storm arrives. Snow showers should continue throughout the day on Saturday with next push of heavy precipitation arriving Sunday morning. The second storm will bring additional snow through Monday night, with snow showers lingering into Tuesday. 

Below is an early look at snow totals for the first storm.

And here is an early idea of what storm number two will bring.

 The first major storm has the potential to produce .5 - 1 m of snow in the deepest areas, while the second could bring another .5 - 1.5 m. Overall, the southern Alps in Italy and Austria are favored to see the deepest totals, but as mentioned, nearly all of the Alps and Pyrenees should see decent to great powder days from these two storms. I'll get into more details regarding timing and totals in the next few posts.

Once the second major storm wraps up around the middle of next week, we should see a short break. The long-range models show more storms possible at the end of February and the beginning of March. 

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow