A strong and slow-moving upper-level low will send several waves of snow toward the Alps and Pyrenees over the next four days. Significant accumulations are expected in the southern Alps during this time. 

Several storms will swing counter-clockwise around the upper-level low into the western Alps bringing mostly southwest, southeast, and southerly flow. You can see the storms rotating around the upper-level low below.

This will benefit the southern Alps in Italy and the southwestern French Alps most. Lighter snow with modest accumulations is expected in the northern Alps, with lesser amounts the farther east you go. 

The snow will come in three primary waves over the next four days, but without much of a break between them, it will seem like one continuous storm. With the extended period of southerly winds, the Verbano-Cuseo-Ossola, Vercelli, Sondrio, and Valle d’Aosta regions in Italy and Wallis and Graubunden regions in Switzerland will see the most snow. 

By Wednesday morning .5 - 1.5 m of snow is possible in these areas. In the southwestern Alps of France and Italy, expect .5 - 1 m of snow. The northern Alps will generally see between 15 - 30 cm from this cycle.

The western Pyrenees should see 40 - 80 cm from this storm with lesser totals of 20 - 40 cm farther east.

Temperatures will be warm with this storm, with snow levels starting around 1800m. Snow levels will start to fall on Saturday and approach 1500m by Sunday night. This will result in dense snow for the most part, except for the higher elevations. 

The heavier snow will taper to showers from west to east starting Monday morning.

After this latest storm cycle winds down early next week, ridging is expected to build in over central Europe. This would shift the storm track north and keep things dry in the Alps and Pyrenees. This pattern may stick around through the weekend, with more storms possible mid-month. 

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow