Fresh powder today across the northern and northwestern side of the Alps as the latest storm delivered a solid dump overnight. Snow totals from the northern French Alps ranged from 20 - 40 cm with 15 - 30 cm in Switzerland and 10 - 20 cm in Austria.

After some lingering showers today (Friday), we'll have a quick break tonight through Saturday Afternoon. A warm storm moves through the Alps from late Saturday through Sunday, but it won't be too strong or stick around for too long. A few more storms should impact the region through the rest of the week, with cooler temperatures overall.

Starting on Saturday afternoon, we'll see periods of rain and high-elevation snow in the French Alps. It will move into Switzerland and Austria early Sunday morning, with snow levels rising to 2000 - 2500 m. The good news is that this storm will move through the Alps quickly, with precipitation wrapping up on Sunday. 

It won't be long, though, before the next storm moves in, and it will be colder. We should see two more waves following this one as well, keeping things active through the weekend. You can see the upper-level pattern below, with several storms moving through the Alps.

These storms will bring additional snow from Monday to Tuesday, Tuesday night to Wednesday, and Friday night to Sunday. The first of these should bring snow totals in the 10 - 20 cm range, perhaps higher in the French Alps. 

We may see snow levels rise again with the second storm this week, but the third one looks stronger and colder. More details on these in future posts. 

The final storm next week looks like it will close off and become cut off from the flow, stalling south of the Alps for several days. This has the potential to bring heavy snowfall to the southern Alps, particularly the eastern and southeastern facing portion of the western Alps. The upper-level low needs to stall close enough to the Alps for this to happen, so we will need to keep an eye on it.

At the same time, a strong ridge will develop over northwestern Europe. This is actually the reason the aforementioned low will stall south of the Alps, but it will also prevent any new storms from moving into the region through the middle of the month. 

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