Snow Dumping in the Alps
Snow Dumping in the Alps
Published : 20-Dec-2024 09:39
A big snowfall is underway in the Alps with up to 40cm (16") of snowfall reported since last night after a day of rain up as high as 2,000m altitudes on Thursday.
Temperatures started to plummet by as much as 15C to well below freezing late yesterday and the rain turned to blizzard conditions in many areas last night.
Early stats today indicated over a foot of snow has fallen above 2,500m with Val Thorens and Val d'Isere both posting 35cm (14") accumulations since last night.
A little lower in the 3 Valleys, Les Menuires has had 27cm overnight, the same as reported by Verbier and the 4 Valleys.
There have though been violent winds and the avalanche danger, which had dropped to 2 on the scale to 5 is back up to 3 ("considerable") thanks to the conditions.
Elsewhere, Austria's Nassfeld has posted the greatest 24 hour total of 40cm so far. Crans Montana, which had been reporting a thin base and little open, has so far had 37cm which should hopefully improve things a lot there.
Lower lying Austrian regions including 2025 Alpine Skiing World Championships hosts Saalbach and the Skiwelt area report 30cm of snow, as does Italy's Val Gardena, which hosts the first of its Saslong World Cup races this morning, currently still on despite the snow.
Snowfall is expected to continue in most areas through today with some centres seeing over 50cm in 24 hours by this evening. The snow showers will ease tomorrow in most areas before another front brings a multi-day snow storm running up to Christmas eve which looks set to bring 5 day totals to 1.2m (4 feet) for some higher slopes and it currently appears, plenty for low elevations too.
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