PowderAlert 12 2025/26 | 18 hours for a Hallelujah!

Winter essentially behaves like a Bud Spencer movie. Nothing happens for a long time, the plot doesn't really interest you and you wonder what exactly it's all about. Then suddenly Ullr hits you in the head with a frying pan and you remember why you're doing this to yourself when the villains and snowflakes are flying past the window left and right.

This time, Ullr has been sitting comfortably in a stolen priest's habit in a small Italian bar with limoncello and pasta for a while, then things really get going when the Italian low suddenly arrives. After 18 hours at full throttle - it snows a little longer, but the real steam is on the boiler from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning - it's all over again. For a long time, it wasn't clear whether anything would happen at all, but now the forecast balls have leveled off in the upper third.

Alert period and areas

Alert amounts are coming from France/Isère via the Maritime Alps and the whole of Piedmont to the Adamello and the Upper Engadine. There is also some fluffing elsewhere, but these are the zones where more than 30 cm of snow is expected.

There are two very small cores: Terrence Hill with a little less steam in the southern Piedmont on the Mediterranean and Bud Spencer with the coarse trowel from the western Ticino over the Simplon and Monte Rosa to the south-eastern chains of the Gran Paradiso and the Aosta Valley.

The Alert goes from Friday night to Saturday until Sunday afternoon.

Snow line

It will start at 1500-1700 m on Saturday and then drop to 1100-1300 m with the arrival of cold air in the south.

Possibly much lower in the main core due to precipitation cooling during the night with the extreme precipitation rates (up to 5-8 cm per hour). It will snow deeper in the north of the main ridge and in the west.

The amounts

In France, west of the main Italian-French ridge, 30-40 cm, in the Maritime Alps of the Piedmont 60-80 cm and in the southern core possibly up to 100 cm.

In western Piedmont 30-60 cm, then it rises quickly, and in the Bud Spencer core 90-120 cm, occasionally I wouldn't rule out up to 150 cm. In Ticino, this quickly decreases and from eastern Ticino to the alert limit, 30-60 cm, with the higher values in the west. On the central main Alpine ridge, e.g. in southern URI or Goms, a lot can also spill over.

Due to the short duration, there are hardly any accumulation surprises and because this Italian low is so small-scale and short-lived, it can be 20 cm less even with a slightly different track, because the bandwidth is still quite high even 48 hours beforehand.

Where should I go?

On Saturday and Sunday, we're heading for the northern core, into the trees above 1,600 m. There's still some base there from the previous winter and it can get nice in the afternoon on Saturday. On Sunday it will be very low in the trees there and the question is what will open up.

From Monday it will be sunny but not so warm due to the easterly flow. It should hold up on the north side and invite you to go touring. WATCH OUT FOR WEAK LAYERS!

From Wednesday onwards, showers will mix in again, but something should still be possible in the morning.

Medium term

It's looking more like dialog between Bud Spencer and Ullr again and the next fight seems at least two weeks away. Pretty sure nothing will happen before then. But it's also not going to be as massively warm as the western US, where an unprecedented March heatwave is looming over the Rockies, so at least it shouldn't be a massive thaw.

Powder to the People!

The snow depth prediction game #10 will take place at the station "Macugnaga Rifugio Zamboni (2078m)" from Thursday, March 12, 18:00 to Sunday, March 15, 17:00. The initial snow depth at the station "Macugnaga Rifugio Zamboni (2078m)" is 145cm (12.3. 18:00).

Write your new snow tip as a comment below by Friday, March 13 at 20:00! Reminder: Prediction game rules, prediction reminder by email.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It was incorrectly written in Saturday 15 March instead of Sunday 15 March - it is now correct. Sorry for the confusion.