The southern Alps continue to make up for lost time, with another storm favoring the region through the weekend. A solid Retour d'est will keep the action going in the southern Alps of Italy and Switzerland, as well as the eastern and northern facing aspects of the southwestern Italian Alps.

This storm will continue through Sunday afternoon and drop an additional 25 - 50 cm across much of the southern Alps, with totals dropping closer to the inner alpine area. The airmass is not overly cold, but snow levels should stay below 1200 m. The Cuneo and Torino regions of Italy should do best with this setup.

After this storm weakens, a ridge will develop over northwest Europe. This will put a stop to any storms coming from the west through most of next week. 

As the ridge strengthens over northern Europe later this week, a weak storm will sneak down into central Europe. With the size and strength of this upper-level ridge, this weak storm will become cut off from the upper-level flow and strengthen a bit. We could see some moderate to heavy snow this weekend, favoring the southern Alps once again.

There is the potential for a period of very heavy snow in the southern Alps in Austria if the cut-off low sets up just off the northwestern Alps. A strong southerly flow with moisture off the Mediterranean would hammer this region. The location of cut-off lows is tricky to pinpoint, so the location of this heavy snow could shift farther west to a different area of the southern Alps, or even farther east, missing the Alps entirely. We will have to keep a close eye on this one. 

My next post will be on Friday.

Thanks for reading the Europe Daily Snow!

Luke Stone
Forecaster, OpenSnow

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