Updated: 2pm Friday 24 April 2020 - Spring has well and truly sprung in the Alps!
It has been remarkably dry across the Alps since the ski season came to a premature close. Indeed, some northern and western parts of the Alps (including resorts close to Geneva) haven’t seen any precipitation at all for six weeks!
Spring has sprung in the Alps! This is the Monte Rosa region – Photo: facebook.com/VisitMonteRosa
April has also been exceptionally warm, meaning that any low-lying snow has long since disappeared.
Had pistes continued to be maintained, as they would have in a normal season, we estimate you might still have been able to ski to between 1300m and 1600m on north-facing slopes, and to around 1800-2100m on prepared south-facing slopes. Some perfectly decent skiing would also still have been possible in high resorts such as Val d’Isère, Val Thorens, Cervinia, Obergurgl and Ischgl, to name just a few.
There is still plenty of snow at higher altitudes, despite the warm weather. This is at around 2500m in Cervinia – Photo: cervinia.it
The weather will slowly turn cooler and more unsettled over the coming days, with the odd shower here or there today, and more substantial precipitation forecast next week.
Updated: 11am Friday 10 April 2020
It is now some weeks since the measures taken to combat the spread of the COVID-19 brought the Alpine ski season to a premature end.
As we all look forward to a return to normality, and dream of hitting the slopes in 2020-21, weathertoski will return to action very soon with new articles on weather and snowfall patterns in the Alps, and a review of the short but relatively sweet 2019-20 season.
For those wondering what snow conditions in the Alps would have been like this week (the busiest of the Easter holiday weeks), the next part of our update won’t make for easy reading, especially if you love warm sunshine and spring skiing!
High pressure has been dominating the weather in the Alps this week, with hardly a cloud in the sky and afternoon temperatures well into the 20°C’s in many of the lower valleys. Yes, this would have meant a pronounced daily freeze-thaw cycle but hey, it is April, and most people skiing at this time of year would settle for that! Especially when we all now find ourselves mostly confined indoors…
Snow levels are also still generally impressive at altitude, with snow depths at 3000m still in the region of 3-4m in many central and western parts of the Alps. It looks like skiing would have still been possible to about 1000-1300m on north-facing pistes, and perhaps to 1400-1800m on south- facing ones.
Anyway, enough about what might have been this week! We’ll be back soon with new features as well as thoughts on the all-important 2020-21 season, which will 'fingers crossed' see the skiing industry return to something like normal.
Stay tuned and stay safe!
Had COVID-19 not brought the ski season to a premature end, you would still have easily been able to ski down to Lech (1450m) this week, despite the very warm weather – 10 April 2020 – Photo: lech.com
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