by jamesdeluxe » Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:28 am
Fraser Wilkins' snow report for today. If the Eastern Alps/Austria were LCC, there'd be an interlodge.
Today in the Alps: Updated: 9.15am Wednesday 9 January 2019 - Extreme snowfall continues in Austria…
The Alps remain under the influence of a vigorous northerly airflow, with lots more snow to come across the northern half of the Alps today. By contrast, the southern Alps will remain mostly dry with sunny spells, protected by the “North Foehn”. However, wherever you are in the Alps today it is likely to be very windy.
The snow situation across some parts of Austria is now what could be classified as extreme – a once in a generation type event in parts of the Tirol, Salzburgland, Styria, Upper and Lower Austria. The Vorarlberg also has a huge amount of snow but they are more used to it here, so the current snowfall is considered less unusual.
Nearly all ski resorts in these parts of Austria are on at least a 4/5 (very high) avalanche danger rating, with some on the maximum 5/5 (extreme), with more resorts likely to reach the maximum level during the course of today. Needless to say, any off-piste activity in these areas is completely out of the question. The snow is also causing problems with infrastructure in these areas, including road closures and in some cases villages being entirely cut off.
If you are in the affected parts of Austria right now, the advice is simply to follow the advice of the local authorities. Do not ski outside of any open pistes, do not walk or drive on any closed roads or footpaths, and stay tuned to local media reports.
Elsewhere in the Alps, there has been a lot of snow in some central and eastern parts of Switzerland (e.g. Laax, Davos) where the avalanche risk is also very high. Snow has also fallen further west in the north-western Swiss and northern French Alps, though in more moderate quantities, with no more than a few centimetres in the mega resorts of the Tarentaise, such as Val d’Isère and La Plagne.
Back to the forecast and it will continue snowing all day across most parts of the northern Alps, heaviest in Austria and eastern Switzerland where it will continue for much of tomorrow. In the north-western Alps, especially in France, it will be more moderate and will die way during the course of the day tomorrow.
By Thursday we can roughly expect the following snowfall totals from this latest storm (i.e. since yesterday):
- Northern French Alps: 5-35cm - highest in resorts close to Lake Geneva and the Swiss border (e.g. Avoriaz);
- North-western Swiss Alps (e.g. Gstaad, Wengen): 30-50cm;
- Central and north-eastern Swiss Alps (e.g. Engelberg, Flumserberg, Klosters): 50-80cm, with more in places;
- Northern Austrian Alps (e.g. Lech, Saalbach, Hochkönig, Gosau): 80-150cm. This is of course on top of all the snow that these north-eastern Alpine resorts have already had in recent days – bringing snowfall totals since the New Year to well over 300cm in places.
By contrast, the southern Alps have seen very little if any snow in recent days, and weeks even and will continue to miss out over the next few days. The Dolomites, for example, are heavily reliant on artificial snow but it has, at least, generally been sunny, meaning that there has been some perfectly good skiing on offer.
We will go into much more detail with regards to snow conditions right across the Alps in our main snow report tomorrow.
