Winter returns to the Alps

Looks like it's not spring just yet. The recent warm and sunny weather in Europe is expected to come to an abrupt end this week, as another winter storm is expected to hit France, Switzerland and Italy bringing lots of snow and much colder weather with it.

In France, Argentiere is expected to receive the most snow of the French resorts in the next five days. 60cm of snow is forecast to fall on the upper slopes and the temperatures will probably be fairly mild in the first half of the week with freezing levels around 1500m, so rain could fall on the lower slopes and in the towns. However on Thursday the snow is expected to start falling even harder and the temperature should drop, meaning fresh snow to all levels.

The same is true for Switzerland during the coming week. The resorts are forecast slightly more snow than France, with Verbier expecting 68cm of snow this week, and 50cm of this should fall on Wednesday and Thursday alone! The same heavy snow is forecast in Zermatt with 31cm of snow expected to fall on Wednesday followed by a further 20cm on Thursday. The combined five day total is a whopping 66cm!

And whilst the rest of Europe is catching up with the two weeks of snow that Austria has been enjoying, some Austrian resorts are still staying ahead with more snow of their own to come. Zell am Zille is also expecting lots of snow, with 48cm expected to fall in the next five days. As with France and Switzerland, this could fall as rain on the lower slopes in the first half of the week but significantly colder weather is expected by Thursday. And in Obergurgl, the snow was still falling on Monday and neighbouring Solden also received 5cm of fresh snow. So Austria is still ahead of the game!