Europe Daily Snow
By Luke Stone, Forecaster Posted 4 days ago March 30, 2025
Snowy Northern Alps and More for the Southern Alps
Summary
The first of two Nordstaus lingers in the eastern Alps on Sunday, while the second moves in on Sunday night. Another solid dump is expected in the Austrian Alps, followed by a Retour d'est that will deliver more snow to the southwestern Alps. Strong ridging over northern Europe will likely keep the storm track to the east of the Alps, bringing mostly drier conditions to the region.
Short Term Forecast
So far, we've seen 20 - 50 cm across much of the Austrian Alps, 5 - 15 cm in the Swiss Alps, and a few favored locations in the 20 - 40 cm range. Snow showers will continue on Sunday, with 5 to 15 cm possible. Below are some of the recent snow totals in the Swiss and Austrian Alps.
The next storm arrives Sunday night with heavy snow and strong winds. The heaviest snow will fall from Monday morning through midday Tuesday. Timing and totals from the previous updates remain on track. Below is the latest snow forecast through Wedneaday.
Once the second Norstau wraps up on Tuesday, a closed low traversing the Alps will lead to a decent Retour d'est in the southwestern Alps. The models still disagree on the strength of this storm, but chances are increasing for a solid 25 to 50 + cm in the southeastern Italian Alps through Wednesday.
Extended Forecast
The models are becoming a bit more consistent with the track of the late-week storm and the pattern into next week. Unfortunately, it looks like the next low dropping down from the north will be too far east for much of an impact in the Alps. The ridge over northern Europe will be too strong and too far east. There's still some time for this to change, but the trend is for fewer, if any, impacts in the Alps. Beyond that, the models keep a ridge in northern/northwestern Europe for the foreseeable future, keeping any major storms away from the Alps and Pyrenees.
Let's hope we trend in another direction.
My next post will be on Monday.
Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!
Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow
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