Big Pre-Xmas Snow Forecast for The Alps
Big Pre-Xmas Snow Forecast for The Alps
Published : 17-Dec-2016 02:42
(Zermatt braces itself...)
After a dry month in Europe, snow forecasters are beginning to predict increasingly large snow falls in the Alps over the week up to Christmas.
Forecasts are being tweaked by the hour but currently the first predictions of falls of up to 35cm of snow in 24 hours on Tuesday/Wednesday this week are being made.
These are just the first day of a prolonged 'snowy period' which forecasters currently say could bring cumulative totals of as much as 1.5m (five feet) of new snow to some Alpine ski slopes by Boxing Day.
One forecaster says Zermatt should get 36cm of snow through Tuesday, another that Zermatt, which has Europe's highest slopes, will get just over 1.5m of snow over the next nine days.
Currtently Zermatt has 1.2m on its year round glacier slopes but no snow at resort level.
Other resorts expected to get at least a foot of snow on Tuesday include Italy's Cervinia, Macugnaga and Monterosa and Saas Fee in Switzerland.
Other resorts in the Alps, Dolomites and Pyreneees are also expected to receive significant snowfalls in the week up to Christmas.
If the snow dopes come as forecast it could be the third year in a row that there has been a heavy snowfall around the Christmas / New Year period, although in the previous two years the snow came just after Christmas in 2014 and just after New Year in 2015-16.
The other difference is that the previous two years there had been little or no autumn snowfall and temperatures too warm for snowmaking, whilst this year there was significant November snowfall and temperatures stayed generally low through the dry spell so snowmaking could work and the snow has not melted too much.
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