Alps Weather 2023

I'm detecting a progressively less doubtful tone from Fraser about the upcoming systems! :eusa-dance:


Things start to get really interesting from Sunday onwards with a succession of storms moving into the Alps from the north-west. It will be mild at first with some rain possible to 1700-1900m early on Sunday before it turns colder later in the day and remains on the cold side for much of next week.

This “conveyor belt” of storms has the potential to bring huge amounts of snow to some parts of the Alps from Sunday onwards, with more than 1m possible by mid-week, especially in the west. Stay tuned!
 
I think January is the sweet spot for conventional cruising through the Dolomites gawking at the amazing scenery. Per sbooker, that amazing snowmaking system actually gets all the pistes covered by Christmas. By mid-February the pistes with sunny exposures are more likely to melt freeze, and IMHO that's not so desirable with predominantly manmade snow.

ChrisC and I are waiting for enough natural snow to ski the Sass Pordoi and other off piste areas. I have my doubts whether that's true yet this season. We had great conditions in January 2018 but Val Mezdi looked sketchy from a distance.

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Tony Crocker said:
Per sbooker, that amazing snowmaking system actually gets all the pistes covered by Christmas.
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A pertinent observation from the OP:
Nun schneit es relativ kräftig. Das macht mir etwas Sorgen für morgen. Naturschnee schadet den Dolomiter-Pisten eigentlich fast nur.
;-)

It's snowing quite heavily now. That makes me a little concerned for tomorrow. Natural snow almost has a tendency to damage Dolomite slopes.
;-)
 
Tony Crocker said:
I think January is the sweet spot for conventional cruising through the Dolomites gawking at the amazing scenery. Per sbooker, that amazing snowmaking system actually gets all the pistes covered by Christmas. By mid-February the pistes with sunny exposures are more likely to melt freeze, and IMHO that's not so desirable with predominantly manmade snow.

ChrisC and I are waiting for enough natural snow to ski the Sass Pordoi and other off piste areas. I have my doubts whether that's true yet this season. We had great conditions in January 2018 but Val Mezdi looked sketchy from a distance.

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I was concerned the ‘white ribbons through brown fields’ may have ruined the views but I needn’t have worried.
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If the forecast holds our timing for Les Arcs from Sunday will be good. The option of plenty of tree cover will help us relative novices handle the flat light. There is just not enough in Tignes/Val D’Isere for a continued stretch of conditions with poor visibility.
Incidentally the pistes down toward Val get scraped off in a lot of places by the afternoon. There’s a base of shiny blue ice lurking underneath. Strangely this is only apparent from the tree line down. Perhaps it was rained on? It’s not only the areas with snow making as far as I can tell.
It’s supposed to be cloudy today so we’ll venture down toward Les Brevieres to check out the conditions there.
 
Sbooker said:
Perhaps it was rained on?
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Definitely. Lots of rain up to 2,200 meters or so during that storm before Christmas. And of course the lower snow is manmade, higher water content, so more prone to get icy with melt/freeze. But I would expect them to be making more snow on those lower runs during colder nights now. Lower runs into base areas also inevitably get tons of skier traffic in industrial ski resorts. Base area pistes in the Alps are often not pleasant, especially late in the day scraped down.
 
Continued good news from Weather To Ski:

Today in the Alps...​

Updated: 10am Monday 16 January 2023 – Winter is back in control of the Alps!

This morning, a band of snow is pushing into the western Alps with snow also falling in the far south-eastern Austrian Alps (Carinthia) and some eastern parts of the Dolomites. This follows yesterday’s arrival of a cold front, ushering in a dramatic drop in temperature sending the rain/snow limit in the western Alps tumbling from 1700-1900m to 600m or lower in just one day!

In the west, the snow will be heaviest in the French Alps where 20-30cm is possible in some favoured spots (e.g. Avoriaz, Flaine) at the end of the day. Some Swiss and western Italian resorts, such as Verbier and Courmayeur, will also see some significant snowfall today, but the eastern Swiss Alps (e.g. St Moritz), most of Austria (apart from the far south) and the central Italian Alps (e.g Livigno) will see little, if any. Today’s rain/snow limit will be low, generally between 300m and 700m.

Tuesday’s weather will be fairly similar, with yet another storm pushing into the western Alps and favouring the French Alps most. There will be bits and pieces of snow further east, with some more persistent falls again possible in the far south-east, notably in Carinthia. Some other eastern parts of the Austrian Alps (e.g. Obertauern) will get more in on the action on Tuesday night. The rain/snow limit will remain very low everywhere.

Snow conditions are clearly improving across most of the Alps this week, especially in the north-west where, at lower altitudes at least, the situation had been so dire up to now. Resorts like Morzine, Les Gets, Samoëns, Les Carroz, La Clusaz, Megève, Villars, Gstaad and Adelboden will be completely transformed over the next couple of days, though patience may be needed while the authorities properly prepare the lower pistes.
 
There looks like there might be a storm the weekend of Jan 28/29 in the northern Alps, but heavily favoring Western Switzerland to the Arlberg. I know things are too far out, but I cannot help myself.

It's one of 2 itineraries:

Southern Alps: Sestriere, Serre Che, Alp d'Huez and Les 2 Alpes.

Or some NW Alps (lots of treed areas to retreat to): Crans Montana, Gstaad, PoS...La Tuile, Zinal

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Looking at snow reports, webcams, and interactive maps - I don't the NW Alps are there yet. Verbier at 110 cm top base is very boney for off-piste / almost unskiable. And there still are a lot of pistes still closed. No immediate saving storm.

So I'm going to ski in the Southern Alps. Priority on Alpe d'Huez, Serre Chevalier, and Sistriere. Maybe La Thuile or Les 2 Alpes.

Time to make some reservations.
 
So much for "I hope no one is getting caught up in this mess" for FTOers' current and upcoming visits. :eusa-dance:

Today's report from Weather to Ski:

Today in the Alps...​

Updated: 9am Tuesday 24 January 2023 – Big snowfalls for a select few in the south-western Alps!

As expected, a ‘Retour d’Est’ has dumped significant snow across some south-western ski areas both yesterday and overnight, with 50cm or more in places.

The areas most favoured by this Retour d’Est are the southern Piedmont (e.g. Sestriere, Prali, Prato Nevoso, Limone) and some resorts just across the border in France, including those in the eastern Maurienne (e.g. Bonneval sur Arc), the Queyras (e.g. St Veran) and the eastern Mercantour (e.g Isola 2000). Most of these areas have seen upwards of 50cm of fresh snow, with 70cm+ in some spots, with a bit more to come today, though not nearly as much as last night.

Val d’Isère has also done quite well from this Retour d’Est, with 20cm of fresh snow at resort level at 9am this morning and 50cm on the Pisaillas glacier. Other Tarentaise resorts (e.g. Paradiski) have seen little if any new snow, however.

Some fresh snow has also fallen in the south-east (Carinthia, Dolomites), however, most of the Alps have stayed dry if still rather cold over the last 24 hours. The far south-east will see some further light flurries today, otherwise most of the Alps will again be dry with plenty of sunshine the further north you are.

Snow conditions are now somewhere between good and excellent across most of the Alps. They are especially good in the French Alps, the south-western Italian Alps (e.g. the Milky Way) and the far south-eastern Alps (e.g. Nassfeld, Dolomites), all of which have fresh snow to varying degrees.

It will remain on the cold side in Alps for the foreseeable future, with bits and pieces of snow over the next few days, mostly in the southern and eastern Alps. Heavy and widespread snow is then likely to affect the northern Alps on Monday or Tuesday next week.
 
Tony Crocker said:
ChrisC and I are waiting for enough natural snow to ski the Sass Pordoi and other off piste areas. I have my doubts whether that's true yet this season. We had great conditions in January 2018 but Val Mezdi looked sketchy from a distance.
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The wePowder book authors indicate that the best Dolomite years reveal themselves by fall/early winter. That's when storms can push moisture from Adriatic up into the wall of the Dolomites and dumps meters.

Basically, if the media shows Venice is flooding, book a ticket/pick dates for Cortina/Val Gardena. Unfortunate reality.

They indicate the same pattern for Monterosa.

Things are kinda sad for Monterosa - Indren tram is not open yet. So basically the best off-piste has no base yet. The same can be said of Zermatt - none of the itineraries are open. And the 2nd Hohtalli tram is still closed.

I've seen some photos from mid late 2010s, Dolomites nailed. However, couloirs can get a lot of blow-in snow and stay protected, so there might be other good years. Telluride's couloirs are heavily dependent upon catching blow-in snow to be skiable.

One day.
 
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jamesdeluxe said:
So much for "I hope no one is getting caught up in this mess" for FTOers' current and upcoming visits. :eusa-dance:
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Here is the OpenSnow column:
Note: it heavily deviates from the Open Snow automated models as to timing,,,,

Europe Daily Snow​

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By Luke Stone, Forecaster​
January 24, 2023 6:41am CET​

Summary​

The stalled low pressure system over the Mediterranean will continue to bring snow to Austria through Tuesday and the Italian Alps through Wednesday. This storm will continue to bring some light snow to the Alps through the middle of the week, with the next chance at heavy snow early next week.​

Update​

Heavy snow continues in the Italian Alps, at places like Prali, seen below, with more to come.​
​
Forecast for Tuesday 1/24 - Wednesday 1/25​
Expect an additional 25 - 50 cms in the upper elevations of the western Italian Alps, with another heavy wave arriving Wednesday morning and lasting through the day.​
Another 10-20 cms expected for the southern side of the Austrian Alps through Wednesday.​
Forecast for Thursday 1/26 - Sunday 1/29​
While the slow moving low pressure system continues to linger over the Mediterranean, it will bring light snow to the Alps, mainly the northern side of the mountains in Austria, over the next couple of days. No more than 5 - 10 cms expected.​
Forecast for Monday 1/30 - Friday 2/3​
The next big chance for snow looks to be around Monday night. Models have come into better agreement on a more westerly track, which would allow for moderate to heavy snow for the central and western Alps. It looks like two waves of snow will impact the Alps, one from Monday to Tuesday, and another from Wednesday to Friday. Although these are two different storms, there probably won't be much of a break in between. With a more easterly track than most recent storms, it does look like Austria would be the deepest from this one. However, there's still plenty of time for the details to fully emerge.​
 
ChrisC said:
Where are you heading next?
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In Chamonix as we speak. I’ll have a day doing the Vallee Blanch. A day at Brevents taking in the scenery across the valley. A day in Courmayeur. I will go for a tourist day to Annecy with the girls.
 
Sbooker said:
In Chamonix as we speak. I’ll have a day doing the Vallee Blanch. A day at Brevents taking in the scenery across the valley. A day in Courmayeur. I will go for a tourist day to Annecy with the girls.
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That looks like a good sampling of the Chamonix / Courmayeur area. Definitely the current highlights.
 
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