The southern Alps continued to get slammed over the last few days, with impressive totals over a meter in the western and southwestern areas, including southern Switzerland and parts of Italy. A wide area received half to one meter of snow from this storm. The next storm will target some of these areas again, as well as some of the southern Alps farther east. The western Alps in France as well as the Pyrenees should see another round of heavy snow as well. 

Our next storm, with snow lasting from Friday morning through Wednesday morning, is comprised of three separate waves. While it will keep snowing nearly the entire time in some parts of the Alps, there are three systems in the upper level that will be responsible for this long-duration event, as you can see below. 

The first phase of the storm will focus on the Pyrenees and southern Alps of Switzerland and Italy. Phase two will get started around Saturday night and will favor the same areas of the southern Alps, but also the western Alps in France.

The track of the storm will allow for southwest winds that will benefit the southern French Alps and the eastern side of the southern Alps in Italy.

As the storm progresses east, winds on the southern side of the Alps become south/southeast, shifting the emphasis in the southern Alps farther west. At the same time, in the northern Alps, winds will shift from the southwest to the northwest, allowing for the northern and southern French Alps to see heavy snow. 

The third phase of the storm will bring lighter snow to the eastern side of the southern Alps, in Italy and Austria, starting Monday night. Below is a look at the potential storm totals through Wednesday of next week. 

We should have a break between storms from Wednesday night through Friday. Another storm looks to approach the Alps from the west over the weekend, but the details remain unclear at this time. I will continue to update the long-range in future posts.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow