Powderalert

After a long period of relatively mild and dry weather, a surge of polar air will finaly descend into the Alps at the very end of the season. In addition, we will be dealing with frontal precipitation and showers moving in from the north and west.

In this short update we zoom in on the snowfall from this PowderAlert. How much has already fallen, what’s still to come—and when will the sun break through? Yesterday morning the front of PA#13 reached the Swiss Alps.

Coen already clearly explained yesterday what we can expect this week. After a solid PowderAlert 12, it’s now time for PowderAlert 13, once again bringing snow from the north. Weather maps at around 5 km altitude for Monday (left) and Tuesday (right) (wxcharts) The snowfall is made possible by a well-defined upper-level trough (the wave with green/blue colors) visible on the map above.

In case you missed it: PowderAlert 12 was an absolute banger, delivering over a meter of deep powder across parts of Switzerland and Austria. If you haven’t seen the footage yet, make sure to check it out here.

The Nordstau is in full swing and snowfall totals increased significantly today! With the snowline dropping all the way down to the lowest valleys, the winter wonderland has fully returned for now.

The cold front bringing winter back to the Alps is approaching fast and will reach the Alps this afternoon. It will deliver between 25 and 75 cm of fresh snow across many regions. In today’s update we take a closer look at what to expect, including snowfall totals, riding conditions for Thursday, the weekend outlook, and a first glance at next week.

Finally, a Nordstau! Chris released PA#12 yesterday and that report also forms the basis for this update. Haven’t read it yet? Make sure to check that article first. Today we’ll give a short day-by-day overview and take a closer look at the model differences for Friday, as the latest runs now suggest less snow for Austria.

In the coming days, a northwesterly flow with polar air will develop, which will start to take hold in the Alps from Wednesday onward. Most of the snowfall will likely be in Austria this time, where the NW‑stau shifts into a nordstau that persists for quite a while.

Henri already mentioned on Wednesday the pool of cold air that would drop toward the Alps. This upper-level cold pool will generate a short-lived easterly stau setup along the Italian inner arc.

The snowfall from PowderAlert 10 reached the Western Alps early this morning. Plans have been made and quite a few WePowderpeople are already on their way to the mountains — or are already there — to score this fresh powder.