We’re going to try and bring you a brief weather roundup each week, probably on a Thursday so you’ll have an up-to-date report on what’s happening before you head off to the mountains.
You can still check out our snow reports for up-to-date details of individual resorts.
Alps:
Looks like a dump is to be expected later this week, and over the weekend. It’s been quite mild recently, but the temperatures have dropped which is encouraging. I’d say we can expect almost a meter to fall in some areas of France and Switzerland over the next week, but less in Austria. There’s likely to be some more snow falling in Italy too, but later in the week as the system moves through. The avalanche risk is still showing as 3-4 for the next few days.
North America:
Canadian resorts had a huge dump over the last few days, whistler was reporting 0.5m falling each day at the beginning of this week, it’s likely to continue although not quite as heavy. Next week the off-piste pow will be enjoyed with clear skies, but the ambient temperatures are likely to rise above freezing in the West, although stay below zero at higher altitudes. There’s the potential for a moderate avalanche risk in the West, due to the recent dump on established snow, the existing layer having experienced some faceting. I suspect more isolated areas will be more prone as they won’t have been skied at all yet, and so won’t have experienced any significant consolidation of the snowpack layers.
In the US, we’re not expecting much more snow to fall, with bright sunny days throughout next week, but the resorts in the East may enjoy some flurries which will freshen things up with about 5 or 6 cm of new snow.
Scotland:
Scotland is enjoying an excellent season so far. There’s been further snowfalls at the beginning of this week, and both on and off-piste is good. The weekend looks good, with mixed sunny spells, and snow-showers moving from west to east. Towards the end of the weekend, however, it’s likely the wind will pick up gusting to about 30mph in a SE direction. Pick your mountain to stay in the lee and make the most of it.