At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Snow Report

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps

Up to half a metre has fallen across the southern French Alps, Italy and parts of Switzerland and Austria.
At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
40cm of fresh snow in Madonna di Campiglio today. Photo: Funivie Campiglio/Facebook

There’s been moderate to heavy across the southern Alps – and it’s still snowing in parts of the Italian Dolomites and Austria’s East Tirol. In some Italian resorts it’s the first decent snowfall this winter.

The south-western Alps were the first to get it yesterday, and there heavy snow south of Grenoble in France. Les Deux Alpes picked up 25cm, and Serre-Chevalier claims 40-50cm of fresh on its upper slopes in its latest snow report. Here’s how it’s looking this morning, as everyone gets stuck in.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: serre-chevalier.com

The snow has spread across Italy, southern Switzerland and into Austria’s East Tirol and Carinthia too, bringing a much needed blanket of white to the slopes. As I’ve said before, unstinting work with the snow cannons has meant the pistes in many resorts have been in good condition, despite the drought: but the belated contribution from Mother Nature will be welcome nonetheless.

Here’s how it’s looking at the Rifugio Ferraro, in the Monterosa ski area this morning, in the Italy’s Aosta Valley.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Monterosa Ski/Facebook

Meanwhile, pictured below is little Madesimo, north of lake Como, which has had 50cm since yesterday morning.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: la-sorgente.eu

Below is St Moritz, in south-eastern Switzerland, where there’s been 30cm of snow in the last 24hrs.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Engadin St Moritz/Facebook

Below is Cortina d’Ampezzo, which has had “about 15cm” of new snow so far.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: cortina.dolomiti.org

All of which is great news – but not as exciting as Wednesday’s snow forecast which is promising a really meaty wintry storm right across the Alps.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Welove2ski’s current snow forecast for Wednesday.

I should say that a dump like this isn’t absolutely certain yet. Some forecasts are calling for much lighter snowfall, and small deviations is weather patterns over the next two days could bring significant changes. But generally, it does look as though the Alps will get a cool and snowy spell between Tuesday night and February 15 or 16. Our snow forecast is already calling for another decent dump on Friday.
 

 
Temperatures will be fluctuating during this period. But once we’ve got beyond a mild interlude tomorrow, the thaws should be short-lived and not as sharp as first thought. It won’t be warming up properly until the middle of next week.
 

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic…

After all the snow of recent weeks, the sun will be out this week in the American and Canadian west. This was Breckenridge, Colorado, yesterday.

At Last! Snow in the Southern Alps | Welove2ski
Photo: Breckenridge/Facebook
 
I’ll be back with a full snow report on Thursday.

About the author

Sean Newsom

As well as founding Welove2ski in June 2007, Sean has written about skiing and snowboarding in the British press for 28 years. For the last 20 of them, he’s also been the ski travel editor at The Sunday Times.

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