Ok, everyone, things are about to get exciting. The best powder of the season is coming, thanks to two storms, the second being the biggest of the season so far. Let's break it down. 

Storm #1

The first storm is getting underway today (Thursday), with light snow and rain in the western Alps of France and western Switzerland. Snow levels are high to start, around 2000 m, but they are already starting to fall. By Friday morning, they should be between 2-300 m in northern France and Switzerland and 3 to 400 m in Austria. 

Snow will become heavy in the western Alps in northern France this afternoon, followed by the Swiss and then western Austrian Alps overnight. The heavy snow will continue until early Friday morning in northern France, mid-morning in Switzerland, and around midday in the western Austrian Alps. Light snow will continue beyond these times Friday afternoon in the northern French Alps, Friday night in the Swiss Alps, overnight in the western Austrian Alps, and possibly through early Saturday morning in the eastern Austrian Alps. 

The forecast for snow totals remains the same, with 25 - 50 cm expected for the northern French Alps, the northern side of the Swiss Alps, and the western Austrian Alps. Below is the latest snow forecast from the high-resolution European model.

Totals will drop off sharply in the southern Alps, while the central and eastern Austrian Alps will generally see 10 - 20 cm.

Winds will start out from the west-southwest but quickly switch to the west-northwest as the front crosses the Alps. This will favor the northern French Alps, particularly the Haute-Savoie, Savoie, and Isere regions, where more than 50 cm is possible above 2200 m. Engelberg and resorts like Wengen, Muren, and Grindelwald in the Bern region of Switzerland should come in on the high end of that range as well. Not surprisingly, the Vorarlberg region in Austria, and resorts like Warth-Schrocken, Lech, Damuls, and Diedamskopf should see the deepest snow in the Austrian Alps.

This upper-level low will split, allowing the southern piece to close-off south of the Alps,. This will result in some favorable southerly winds for the southern side of the Austrian Alps and the eastern Italian Alps. These areas could see 10 - 20 cm. 

Winds will be strong on Thursday, especially in the northern French Alps, but should back off on Friday. This snow will be low-density after the cold front moves through, resulting in great snow on Friday. The best chance for above treeline terrain opening will be in northern France, as the storm will wind down a bit sooner there, resulting in potentially better visibility. 

Storm #2

There won't be much of a break for the Alps overall as the second storm moves into the western Alps on Saturday morning. Snow levels will rise at the onset of storm #2, up to around 1000 m. There could be some rain mixing in at the bases of lower-elevation resorts, but it shouldn't be much of an issue. 

The massive and deep upper-level low will be accompanied by a strong cold front that will begin to lower snow levels around Sunday afternoon. This storm is coming down from the north, with the coldest air moving into the Swiss and Austrian Alps, where snow levels will fall to 2-300 m on Sunday night. In the northern French Alps, they should drop to 3-400 m.

This storm will feature much stronger winds and an extended period of very heavy snowfall. The deepest totals will once again be found in the northern French Alps through the western Austrian Alps. There will be greater accumulations at low elevations and the central/eastern Austrian Alps will see substantial snow totals as well. Some lowland snow is even possible in Germany, Austria, and Czechia. 

From Saturday night through Tuesday evening, the snowfall rates will be extremely high, surpassing 4 cm/hr at times. Winds will be strongest early in the storm, on Saturday night and Sunday. Visibility will be very poor above treeline on Sunday, Monday, and into Tuesday for the Austrian Alps.

Lift and terrain closures are a certainty due to low visibility and rising avalanche danger. Your best bet is to stick to lower-elevation terrain with some trees to help with the visibility. O Monday, especially with low snow levels, the skiing and riding on this type of terrain will be absolutely epic. Sunday will be great, too, but less snow will have piled up overall, and snow levels will be a bit higher. Turns will be bottomless on both days, with true free refills. 

As I've been discussing the last few days, a large, strong ridge will start to move into western Europe on Tuesday. Warm air associated with this ridge will reach the Alps and cause the snow levels to slowly rise. As the ridge overspreads the region, snow levels will continue to climb, peaking around 1500 m on Wednesday in the French/Swiss Alps and around 1200 m in the Austrian Alps. 

This will lead to some upside-down snow toward the tail end of the storm Tuesday night through Wednesday in the Swiss Alps and especially in the Austrian Alps, where heavy snow lingers longer. Temperatures will rise above freezing at mid-mountain and below for most resorts on Wednesday and Thursday. Avalanche danger will be high from the large amount of snowfall in a short period of time. The rising snow levels later in the storm will cause increased avalanche danger due to the upside-down snow. Finally, the warming temperatures will lead to a third period of high avalanche danger. 

Off-piste and backcountry conditions during this entire period will be dangerous, so make sure you're prepared if you plan to venture out in these conditions. I will get into more details of timing and totals in tomorrow's post, but overall, I'm still expecting a wide area of 1 m of new snow with the favored northern French through western Austrian Alps seeing 1 - 2 m from this second storm alone. 

The aforementioned ridge will continue to strengthen later next week and expand across all of northern/central Europe. This will cause storm #2 to close off and also become separated from the upper-level flow. The storm will stall over Italy and may even bring some snow/rain showers to the southern Alps during this time. 

The models keep this ridge around through the rest of the month with the next chance for snow coming around the 31st of December or after New Year's.

My next post will be on Friday.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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