In the last five days, totals in the central and eastern Austrian Alps from the two Nordstaus have topped out in the 80 to 100 + cm range. It’s been a while since these areas saw deep snow, so these storms are providing some of the best conditions of the season.

There aren’t many changes to the forecast moving forward, as the latest Nordstau will become a Retour d’est that dumps significant snow in the southwestern Alps. This storm is already underway and will continue through Thursday, dropping a widespread 15 to 30 cm and 25 to 50 + cm in the southeast-facing aspects, thanks to predominantly southeast winds.

Below is the latest snow forecast for additional snowfall from Wednesday morning through Friday.



Another storm will hit the eastern side of the Alps this weekend, but the latest guidance still keeps this as a glancing blow, with totals below 20 cm. As I’ve mentioned, with all these storms tracking just east of the Alps, a small westward shift can produce more significant totals. The majority of models at this time have this storm too far east for any major impacts. 

Beyond that, a strong ridge over northwestern Europe is expected to keep the storm track even farther east of the Alps, leaving the Alps and Pyrenees dry for the next seven to ten days. The models show this ridge breaking down around April 12th. We could see a more favorable pattern with more storms around then, but it’s too early for any specifics.

My next post will be on Thursday.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow