It’s been a while since we’ve seen a lengthy and cold Nordstau over the Alps. After this type of storm delivered big totals early in the season in November and December, snow has been less frequent for the northern Alps. Meanwhile, the southern Alps were favored for most of February and March. 

Starting last night, the first of two storms with a Nordstau setup will bring impressive snow totals to the Swiss and Austrian Alps along with cold temperatures. The first round of snow will continue on Wednesday with heavy snow throughout the day. A widespread 15 - 30 cms are expected by evening, deepest in the eastern Swiss and western Austrian Alps. Snow will become more showery Wednesday night but another 5 - 10 cm is likely in the Swiss and Austrian Alps. 

Moderate to heavy snow will return on Thursday, especially in the Swiss Alps, with lighter snow elsewhere. We'll have somewhat of a break on Friday with only light snow expected at times. The next storm arriving from the north will bring more heavy snow to the Austrian and Swiss Alps starting Friday night. Saturday should be a great powder day with 15 - 40 cm fresh, followed by another 10 - 20 cm during the day. Snow will become a bit lighter Saturday night but Sunday morning will provide 5 - 15 cm of fresh snow, with possible terrain openings featuring the storm total.

We’ll remain in a showery pattern for the early part of the week, and we’ll stay cold as well. Snow levels will fall to around 900 m Wednesday as the first cold front crosses the Alps. A consistent supply of cold air from the north will keep snow levels around 900 m for the entire period. 

The central/eastern Swiss Alps and the western Austrian Alps will likely end up between .5 - 1.5 m of snow in the Nordstau favored areas. Farther west into the northern French Alps, and farther east into the central/eastern Austrian Alps, totals will decrease, with 20 - 50 cm total through the weekend.

Below is the latest snow forecast from the European model through Sunday. 

The models show another storm moving into the Alps around the middle of next week. There has been some disagreement on the track of this one, but the northern Alps could be favored again. We’ll have to give next week’s pattern a few more days to sort itself out before getting into snow totals for that one.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

Summer Weather: How To Use OpenSnow

As the snow begins to melt and summer conditions quickly take over, remember that you can use OpenSnow as your go-to weather app during the non-winter months.

Get started by going to...

1. Favorites > Weather
2. Location > Weather
3. Maps > Weather

Switch to using your "Summer" favorites list, check the "Weather" tab on both the Favorites screen and any location screen, and avoid poor air quality & incoming storms with our summer-focused map layers in the OpenSnow app.

You can also view the hourly forecast for the next 10 days for any location on Earth in OpenSnow.

1. Go to the "Maps" tab.
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View → Summer Forecasts