Solid snow totals have piled up from the northern French Alps through the western Austrian Alps, with 20 - 40 + cm so far. Light snow will continue through Friday afternoon, most consistent in the Austrian Alps.

Saturday should stay mostly dry, though a stray shower is possible. Our major holiday storm starts on Saturday night. In previous posts, I've discussed the setup of this storm and the major concerns surrounding it at length. So today, I will just break down the timing and totals expected through early next week. 

Like the storm that is winding down today, winds will be out of the northwest, favoring the typical Nordwestau zones. These include the northern French Alps, the Swiss Alps, and the western Austrian Alps. Totals will decrease a bit farther east into the central and eastern Austrian Alps and the inner alpine area. Much less snow is expected on the southern side of the Alps, courtesy of downsloping winds.

The northern French Alps, the Swiss Alps, and the western Austrian Alps can expect .5 - 1 m of additional snow. Parts of the Savoie and Haute-Savoie regions of France, the Bern, Obwalden, Glarus, Nidwalden, Schwyz, and northwestern Wallis regions of Switzerland, and the Vorarlberg and Tirol regions of Austria will do even better, with an additional .75 - 1.5 m. Finally, parts of the Vorarlberg region in Austria and parts of the Bern and Nidwalden regions of Switzerland could approach 2 m. 

Next, I will discuss the timing and totals for the aforementioned most favored areas across the Alps. In the northern French and western Swiss Alps, the heaviest snow will fall from Saturday night through Tuesday morning. Sunday through Monday morning will be particularly intense, with 25 - 50 cm during each of these 12-hour periods. The rest of that period should see between 10 - 25 cm every 12 hours. 

Heavy snow will fall in the central Swiss Alps from Saturday night through Tuesday night. Between 25 and 50 cm are expected every 12 hours between Sunday and Tuesday morning, with 10 to 20 cm on Saturday night and Tuesday.

The heavier snow will arrive just a bit slower in the eastern Swiss Alps and western Austrian Alps. Between Sunday and Tuesday night, this region should receive 20 - 45 cm of snow every 12 hours, with about 5 - 10 cm on Saturday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday. 

Outside of these zones that really get clobbered during Nordwestaus, you can chop off about 25% of the above snow totals for the rest of the northern French Alps through the western Austrian Alps 

Below is the latest snow forecast from the high-resolution WRF model.

The most important development over the last 24 hours is that the warm air being pulled into the Alps as a result of the strong ridge moving in is now expected to hold off a bit longer, especially in the Austrian Alps. This should allow Wednesday, in addition to Monday and Tuesday, to retain great conditions with high-quality, low-density snow. Even the rest of the week, while temperatures will climb above freezing at times on the slopes, will not be as warm as the models showed a few days ago.

The ridge will stick around for a while, expanding over northern Europe through the rest of the week. It will start to move off to the east next week, with a small chance for storms later in the week. 

My next post will be on Saturday.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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Regions of the Alps