There will be some lingering snow showers on Tuesday, especially in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, with up to 5 cms possible. Wednesday and most of Wednesday night should stay dry, with the long-awaited storm arriving early Thursday morning. 

Let’s get into the details of this storm. A strong and broad upper-level area of low pressure will approach from the west. As it nears the Alps, one piece of energy will move east and then northeast, bringing heavy snow to the western Alps. A second piece of energy will dive southeast, bringing more snow to the western Alps and then the southern Alps. Finally, as the storm continues to move southeast, northwest winds will bring accumulating snow to the northern/eastern Alps. 

This storm track should bring heavy snow to a wide area of the Alps and Pyrenees, with snow levels crashing down on Thursday night. Snow will get started in the western Alps on Wednesday night, with snow levels rising at the onset. Snow will spread west to east overnight.

West-southwest winds will initially bring heavy snow to the western Alps in France through Thursday. Winds will then shift more southerly, favoring the southern Alps in Italy and Austria starting Thursday night. On Friday, on the northern side of the Alps, the location of the low pressure will result in northwest winds, increasing snow for Austria. In the Pyrenees, the action gets started a bit later, on Thursday night. 

Let's talk about totals. Expect 25 - 50 cms in the western Alps (France/Switzerland) and the eastern Alps (Austria). Some locations in the Haute-Savoie and Hautw-Alpes could exceed 60 cms. 

The southern Alps (Italy and Austria) will see the biggest totals, where .5 - 1 m is possible. The Karnten region of Austria and the Udine, Sondrio, and Bergamo regions of Italy will get hit especially hard, and are likely to come in on the high end of that range. 

In the western Pyrenees, totals should wind up in the 20 - 40 cm range, with 5 - 15 cms on the eastern side. 

As mentioned, temperatures will be a bit warm to start, and will initially rise as the storm gets started. In the west, snow levels will start around 1800 m and rise to around 1950 m, while in the east they will start around 1650 m to 1800 m. There are approximations, with the snow levels generally starting a bit lower the farther east you go. 

Most of the heavy snow will wrap up by Saturday morning, with snow showers continuing the rest of Saturday and Sunday. Below is the latest snow forecast for this storm through Sunday from the European model.

Another storm will approach the Alps and Pyrenees Sunday night into Monday. There remains some disagreement on how far east the upper-level low travels before dropping south. A more westerly track would limit totals. If the storm gets farther east before moving south, another significant storm would impact the western/southern Alps. More details in the next few days.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow