8th March 2023
The long-awaited storm is finally hitting the Alps. All eyes are on the temperatures. NEW
Wednesday 8th March
The forecast snow has arrived in the north-west Alps.
It now remains to be seen where the freezing level will be over the next few days – what falls as snow and what falls as rain.
It is very welcome after weeks and weeks of no snow and brings a welcome boost, not just for skiers and snowboarders.
Mont Blanc in the distance. Image © PlanetSKI
PlanetSKI’s Tim Clark is in Les2Alpes in the southern French Alps.
“A wide weather front moved in from the West from around 3pm on Tuesday, making its way steadily across both Les Deux Alps and Alpe de Huez, with view from the Glacier showing the snow beginning to roll into other resorts further north such as Les Three Valleess, Val D’Isere Arcs1950 and La Plagne,” said Tim.
“The good news for skiers is that far from a short flurry it snowed for a good four to five hours until around 8pm, with more expected on Wednesday.
“At resort level 1,600m there was around 5cm of snow or more settling onto most areas.
“Higher up in Les Deux Alps conditions had deteriorated by late afternoon, with wind whipping up at the glacier height of 3,400m down for around 400m or so before conditions eased off nearer Toura at 2,800.”
Tim mentioned the accidents he has seen.
It follows some recent articles on PlanetSKI looking at the rising number of accidents on the slopes:
And we have an update from a regular PlanetSKI reader, Valais Dude, over in Switzerland:
Here it comes – the new weather front pushes through, bringing either a forecast METRE of snow during Wednesday-Friday or a whole lot of rain that will wash away snow cover in much of Valais, we will soon see which it is 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/bh3goxHx4H
— Valais Dude (@ValaisDude) March 7, 2023
More to follow….
Tuesday 7th March
There is a large amount of snow forecast for the the north-west Alps, home to many of the major French resorts that have seen little snow since mid-January.
Sadly there is also a large amount of rain in the forecast.
As the storm approaches the key thing will be the temperature.
Where will the freezing level be?
“Between now and Sunday we are likely to see some serious quantities of snow at high altitude in the north-western Alps, with 1m to 1.5m of snow possible above 2,300m in the likes of Val d’Isère, Tignes, Val Thorens, La Plagne, Les Arcs and Chamonix,” said Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk.
“Some western Italian resorts (e.g. La Thuile), and northern and western Swiss resorts (e.g. Verbier, Mürren, Engelberg), as well as the far west of Austria (e.g St Anton) could also see significant quantities of snow above 2000-2300m.
“Lower down, there will be plenty of rain this week, especially in the north-western half of the Alps.
“This will be heaviest and most problematic later this week and this weekend.
“This is obviously not great news for the likes of Megève, Morzine, Samoëns, Villars, Gstaad and Grindelwald, where natural snow cover is already patchy,” added Fraser.
French Alps. Image © PlanetSKI
Watch this space…
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This article was originally published by Planetski.eu. Read the original article here.
