Snow showers are underway as our next blockbuster storm gets started on Friday. Three waves of snow will bring impressive snow totals through the model of next week, with a fourth round of snow possible shortly thereafter. Another wild week is on the way for the Alps and Pyrenees. 

There are no major changes once again since yesterday’s post, with a long-duration major storm getting going today. In this post, I’ll break the storm down into the three phases, and discuss the follow-up storm later in the week as well.

Phase 1

The first phase of the begins today, Friday, and will last through Saturday. The northern side of the western Alps will be favored during this period, with predominantly northwesterly flow. The Swiss and northern French Alps should see 15 - 30 cms of snow with snow levels around 1800m.

Phase 2

Phase two will get started on Saturday afternoon and continue through Monday. The second phase will bring the heaviest snow of the storm and some of the heaviest snow of the season. Winds will range from the southeast to the northeast, favoring the southern Alps in Switzerland and Italy. A cold front associated with this wave, arriving Saturday night, will bring better snow quality to these regions. The totals during this phase will be impressive, as you can see below.

Phase 3 

In the third phase of the storm, northwest winds will bring another round of heavy snow to the western Alps in Switzerland and northern France, similar to phase one. A second cold front will bring better snow densities and snow quality through Wednesday evening.

Below is the latest snow forecast for the three waves impacting the Alps and Pyrenees through Wednesday.

After there are three waves that move through the Alps and the Pyrenees from the northwest, another system will approach from the northeast. This will bring a solid period of snow to the northern side of the eastern Alps in Austria. The storm track will bring northeast winds to the Austrian Alps initially, allowing the northern side to benefit. As this storm moved west, against the upper-level flow, winds will then shift to the southwest, bringing some snow to the southern side of the Austrian Alps. 

The same storm impacting the Austrian Alps will continue to move west and eventually merge with another storm near the western Alps. This could bring another strong storm around next weekend.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow