A lot more sunshine and warm weather is in store for the Alps and Pyrenees over the next week as a strong and expansive high pressure remains over the region. Around Wednesday of next week, the ridge will finally weaken and begin to move off to the east. A storm will then move in from the west and split, with the main upper-level area of low pressure tracking north of the Alps.

Check out the development of the upper-level pattern below.

 

This track will bring a period of moderate to heavy snow in the western and northern Alps from Thursday through Friday, with some lingering snow showers in the eastern Alps through Monday. The Pyrenees will see some light to moderate snow as well. 

With the storm moving in from the West, winds will initially be out of the west-southwest, favoring the French Alps, including the northern part of the southern French Alps and all of the northern French Alps. 

As the storm moves farther east, winds will turn more northwest, shifting the focus to the Swiss Alps. Finally, as the upper-level low splits again, sending a piece of energy south over the eastern Alps, a period of weaker northerly flow is expected to bring some moderate snow to Austria.

Temperatures should be cold once again, and snow levels will be between 500 and 1000 m for the majority of the storm. Below is the latest snow forecast from the European model, which shows 15 - 30 cm for the French Alps and 10 - 20 cm for much of the Swiss and Austrian Alps. 

This system's arrival is still five days away, so some changes to this forecast should be expected.

Following this storm, the models show another strong ridge developing over western Europe, keeping the storms away. 

There are some signs in the ensembles that another storm is possible around the 7th of January. That is what I have my eye on beyond the storm later next week.

My next post will be on Saturday..

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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Regions of the Alps