The Alps Snow Thread - Season 2014/2015

[J10]

Latest Blog Update and it is the best yet in terms of a snowy outlook.

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/blog/189/entry-4858-alps-weather-forecast-27-december-2014/

[J10]

Fantastic to see Euro4 charts showing wide-spread snow across the Alps this weekend:

06.00 Sat 27th French & Swiss Alps Euro4 06.00 Sat 27Dec14.gif

12.00 Sat 27th moving into the Tyrol, Austria Euro4 12.00 Sat 27Dec14.gif

06.00 Sun 28th snowfall right across the length of the Alps Euro4 06.00 Sun 28Dec14.gif

Indeed things are looking much better this weekend. and the webcams are already showing the benefit

Snow has arrive in Portes Du Soleil

Edited December 27, 2014 by J10

[knocker]

An impressive cyclone over Benelux is dumping a lot of snow over CNTRL Europe. More: https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/photos/a.1423656947857402.1073741825.1377757209114043/1614614612094967/?type=1&theater â€¦

[frozencanals]

Evening all,

Amazing snow conditions today compared to 2 days ago here in Austria, went skiing in Saalbach Hinterglemm today and you could ski right down to the resort. Picture post card weather everywhere you looked and another 10 to 20cms to fall overnight, the winter season is finally in full swing. Snow cannon are still being used at lower levels to keep the pistes in good condition. Its our last day tomorrow so we are pleased to have had a good couple of snow days this trip.

Cheers

FC

Edited December 27, 2014 by frozencanals

[chionomaniac]

Indeed things are looking much better this weekend. and the webcams are already showing the benefit

Snow has arrive in Portes Du Soleil

Les Gets snow 2.JPG

Just got back from Morzine. Typical for the snow to arrive when we were leaving. The road conditions from Morzine to Les Gets were particularly poor this morning - it took about an hour for a 10 min drive with many drivers getting stuck, then putting snow chains on. At around 10.30am this morning there was around 15cm fresh snow at Les Gets resort level. The whole area will be open now!

[J10]

Just got back from Morzine. Typical for the snow to arrive when we were leaving. The road conditions from Morzine to Les Gets were particularly poor this morning - it took about an hour for a 10 min drive with many drivers getting stuck, then putting snow chains on. At around 10.30am this morning there was around 15cm fresh snow at Les Gets resort level. The whole area will be open now!

 

I can imagine the frustration!!!

 

But the conditions are causing widespread travel difficulties

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30613481

[seaside 60]

Just seen the report of the snow chaos.

I wonder how much of that mayhem around the Saviove  was caused by people not having snow chains on.

Lets face it that amount of snowfall is hardly much above average there.
 

[seaside 60]

Just checked the Les Gets web cams and its gone from almost nothing to 40cm valley and 70cm up top.

Not that much difference when we went years ago at xmas time.

I bet the snow is just fantastic and the off piste even better.

[chionomaniac]

Just seen the report of the snow chaos.

I wonder how much of that mayhem around the Saviove  was caused by people not having snow chains on.

Lets face it that amount of snowfall is hardly much above average there.

 

We came across a number of vehicles that had stopped on the corners of the hill without chains on and then decided to put them on holding everyone else up. Once you lose momentum you can end up stuck even with snow tyres on. The police were prevening cars going up without the correct tyres but by then it was too late.

 

 

The webcams from Morzine de Pleney look completely different today from when I was there on Friday!

 

 

[Duane S.]

Gutted for those who having endured a week of no snow then had the irony of a massive dumping stopping them from getting to the airport on time as they headed home!! It will hit some resorts hard as it always does. Once this happens to you, you inevitably start looking higher up for your next snow fix.

Looking at Les Gets/Portes Du Soleil (vested interest as that is where I'll bee this time next week), Looks like a bit more today then nothing much all week but cold enough for the cannons to do their stuff and a good base to work off. The weekend looks like turning a bit milder before better snow potential going through the following week with the likelihood of fronts approaching from a broad westerly direction. Although these can often be of rain lower down in this region so hopefully there will be a good Northerly element to it.

Edited December 28, 2014 by s4lancia

[chionomaniac]

Gutted for those who having endured a week of no snow then had the irony of a massive dumping stopping them from getting to the airport on time as they headed home!! It will hit some resorts hard as it always does. Once this happens to you, you inevitably start looking higher up for your next snow fix.

Looking at Les Gets/Portes Du Soleil (vested interest as that is where I'll bee this time next week), Looks like a bit more today then nothing much all week but cold enough for the cannons to do their stuff and a good base to work off. The weekend looks like turning a bit milder before better snow potential going through the following week with the likelihood of fronts approaching from a broad westerly direction. Although these can often be of rain lower down in this region so hopefully there will be a good Northerly element to it.

As long as the temps don't rise there will be plenty enough in Les Gets for the next couple of weeks now.

[johnholmes]

 

It must be so disappointing when that happens, waiting many months for such a special holiday.

touch wood in 30 years at Wengen it has only happened once and looking at the latest web cams snow has, as it often does, finally made in Christmas week. Even so the race committee must be quite worried. By this time last year they had pisted top to bottom a layer at least 30+cm thick, this year they had nothing until the last 3 days other than grass below 5000ft.

[BarnetBlizzard]

We drove from north london to Les arcs in france yesterday and the drive took 26 hours. not nice. 

[julo764]

We drove from north london to Les arcs in france yesterday and the drive took 26 hours. not nice. 

 

High time to choose now for winter tyres. It should be mandatory in French mountains.

[WINTRY WALES]

Great place morzine and les gets for skiing. Found the après ski a little quiet though. Looking to book chamonix this year....any one been? Good or bad? Also any other recommendations of resorts around the Geneva airport area??

Thanks guys

Edited December 29, 2014 by WINTRY WALES

[Oakland_Dan]

Glad to see that the white stuff has arrived to the Alps.  If only it would snow more in Tahoe . . . I did make it up to Kirkwood over the weekend, which seems to have the best coverage in the area if any one is planning a trip to Tahoe in the near future.

 

Blessed Weather- regarding my question about what region Sankt Anton is in, I was more curious if it is considered in Southern/Northern/Eastern/Western alps, as it seems those are the regions that are referenced in forecasts.  My guess is Eastern Alps?

 

Also, when storms hit the Alps, how does that affect the train service in the region? We are traveling into the region from Munich by train.  Since I just finished reading about all the stranded motorists in France, it piqued my curiosity about how the train system operates in that type of weather. Do the rail lines tend to get shut down, or are they able to continue operations even in heavy snow?

[Blessed Weather]

Glad to see that the white stuff has arrived to the Alps.  If only it would snow more in Tahoe . . . I did make it up to Kirkwood over the weekend, which seems to have the best coverage in the area if any one is planning a trip to Tahoe in the near future.

 

Blessed Weather- regarding my question about what region Sankt Anton is in, I was more curious if it is considered in Southern/Northern/Eastern/Western alps, as it seems those are the regions that are referenced in forecasts.  My guess is Eastern Alps?

 

Also, when storms hit the Alps, how does that affect the train service in the region? We are traveling into the region from Munich by train.  Since I just finished reading about all the stranded motorists in France, it piqued my curiosity about how the train system operates in that type of weather. Do the rail lines tend to get shut down, or are they able to continue operations even in heavy snow?

 

Hi Oakland_Dan. Right, I see where you're coming from. Yes, I would class St. Anton as eastern Alps and that seems to be confirmed by this little snippet about the village of St. Christoph, just up the road (which is part of the linked ski area):

 

St. Christoph am Arlberg, known as one of the highest located ski resorts of Austria and the Eastern Alps, belongs to the municipality of St. Anton am Arlberg.

http://www.tyrol.tl/en/tyrols-holiday-areas/arlberg-paznaun-ischgl/st-christoph-am-arlberg/

 

I can only talk about my own experience with the trains in Austria. They pride themselves on keeping services running punctually and are rarely effected by normal levels of snowfall. I shouldn't worry about your planned trip!

[stuboy]

So it looks like Passo Tonale finally got some snow! However, not having been there before can someone give me an idea of its exact location? Is it eastern Alps, and did it fair ok the last few days compared to other resorts?

[Blessed Weather]

Well what a belting couple of days weather for the Alps (although my sympathies to those who experienced travel problems). Resorts across the Alps have typically seen between 30cm and 50cm of snow fall, and thanks to low temperatures even the lowest of resorts have seen their situation dramatically improve.

 

Snow-forecast.com have just published a great write-up about the improved conditions across the Alps. Here's their headline, but follow the link for a more 'in-depth' for each country.

 

SNOW NEWS UPDATED 29 DECEMBER 2014

INTRODUCTION: Europe received a much needed Christmas present over the festive period with all ski regions across the continent receiving lots of fresh snow which has improved conditions significantly and the overall temperature has plummeted well below the freezing mark. There is still work to be done though as the base depths need strengthening but the recent snow has certainly been welcomed but there is plenty of good skiing available at higher altitudes.

http://www.snow-forecast.com/overviews/tips_full

 

But as we enter the New Year I'm probably not alone in looking anxiously at the forecasts, with the models suggesting an increasingly milder flow from the west during the first full week of January.

[Blessed Weather]

So it looks like Passo Tonale finally got some snow! However, not having been there before can someone give me an idea of its exact location? Is it eastern Alps, and did it fair ok the last few days compared to other resorts?

 

Hi stuboy. Passo Tonale being an Italian resort I'd put it firmly in the southern Alps camp. And as is often the way with weather coming down from the north, Passo Tonale seems to have missed out on the snowfall over the last couple of days. Here's the Ski Club of GB report for today, 29th Dec, which says the last snow to fall in the resort was (surprisingly) way back on the 1st Dec. However, the report looks OK with 40cm of snow at the bottom and 350cm at the top, with pistes described as "good".

http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/snowreports/snowreport.aspx/Passo-Tonale#.VKHM01AN8Bg

[Duane S.]

But as we enter the New Year I'm probably not alone in looking anxiously at the forecasts, with the models suggesting an increasingly milder flow from the west during the first full week of January.

You are certainly not alone in that respect Blessed. I'm due to depart for a week on the 3rd and I have been far more concentrated on Northern Alps than the UK when viewing the charts from the past 7 days! Does seem like there is potential for a moderate snowfall this coming weekend, maybe 10-15cm or so, which would be nice. Thereafter broad westerlies look like dominating. Not too much in the way of snowfall during the week (as it currently stands), hopefully not too much in the way of a TM airmass but it does remain a possibility mild south westerlies could prevail.

[johnholmes]

I too am tending to spend as much time looking at the Alps both model outputs and the forecasts for 850mb temperatures. A good snowfall recently for the Lauberhorn ski run but way down on the last 2-3 years with no snow until this last fall below about 5000ft. So fingers crossed the 850mb temperature do not get much above 3-4C for the rest of January. Not much to hope for is it?

 

Looking okay today

http://www.lauberhorn.ch/en/Livecam

 

and the village report seems fine

http://www.wildx.ch/snow/report.php#showhere

[EMids WeatherWatcher]

Great place morzine and les gets for skiing. Found the après ski a little quiet though. Looking to book chamonix this year....any one been? Good or bad? Also any other recommendations of resorts around the Geneva airport area??

Thanks guys

Hello Wintry Wales

 

I'm off to Chamonix on January 17th, went there last year in late january, its a great place

to ski being around the Mont Blanc area, I personally dont do much skiing i'm more

of the sightseeing type but if your planning a visit you wont be dissapointed, I did a few trips from the resort, over the border into Italy to Courmayeur, over into Verbier in Switzerland, the transport in the resort is great too, the trains run the whole length of the valley from Argentiere

in the north to Servoz in the south, plenty of nightlife too and the prices are reasonable

 

Dont know about any skiing resorts around the Geneva area as i'm only flying in and

out of there so can't help you on that one.

 

Cheers.

[J10]

I am looking at the Alps Weather charts more than the UK at the moment, possible at least there is a chance of snow.

[Blessed Weather]

You are certainly not alone in that respect Blessed. I'm due to depart for a week on the 3rd and I have been far more concentrated on Northern Alps than the UK when viewing the charts from the past 7 days!

 

I too am tending to spend as much time looking at the Alps both model outputs and the forecasts for 850mb temperatures.

 

Hi s4 & John. I'm glad I'm not alone in spending more time looking at Alps charts than those for the UK at the moment!! I'm off to Feldberg in Germany (very near the Swiss border) on Sunday 4th Jan which is a small but very enjoyable ski resort, but the top station is only 1,450m. My wife can't ski any more but nevertheless loves the mountains and everything covered in snow. Because she can't ski she likes a destination where she can shop or jump on a train while I ski. Feldberg (and slightly lower Titisee where we stay) ticks the boxes for her! So I've been watching the daily trend from the models to show less and less amplification and a flatter westerly flow with growing anxiety!

 

I'm slightly happier tonight as both ECM and GFS are both in unison (tonight anyway) suggesting that the 850hPa temps for the coming 10 days have only one day at +5c (this Fri 2nd), otherwise temps remain between 0c and -5c. Those sorts of temps (at around 1,500m) won't impact the pistes of most resorts to any great extent, particularly with overnight lows dropping below 0c. 

And as a 'Brucie bonus', both models are showing another cold/snowy plunge from the NW on Fri 9th Jan. I know it's FI, but I have to say, I've shown some promising GFS FI charts a couple of times this season and the model has delivered (particularly last weekend's 27th/28th snow-fest which GFS was showing on the 20th).  

 

ECM Fri 2nd Jan (the mildest day)  GFS same time

 

ECM 9th Jan (more snow on the way?) GFS same time