Alert areas and period:
Alert volumes are in place from the Bernese Oberland/central Switzerland to Lower Austria, i.e. almost the entire northern Alps. The core is probably between Glarner Land and Styria with the highest amounts on the Arlberg or in North Tyrol and towards the Salzkammergut.
The alert is valid until Friday morning or in the east until Friday afternoon, then everything is through.
The snow line:
This is where we have our problem. The snowfall that is already starting will only fall as snow above about 1200-1800m. The 1200m is for the deep east of Austria and the 1800m for western Switzerland. In between, it's more difficult, because in the Arlberg, for example, it can snow up to 1200m (or even lower?) in narrow valleys with heavy congestion, just like in northern Grisons in Switzerland. However, it can also rain higher in the east with less heavy snowfall on the main ridge.
In general: If you want to powder on Friday, you should try your luck in the east above 1500m and in the far west above 2000m, because it should stay with good powder there. In the main precipitation areas, 1500-1700m should be enough for good powder.
As the icing on the cake, the snow line will drop below 1000m again on Friday and provide a fluffy topping everywhere with the last few centimetres at the end of the snowfall. Just as it should be.
Wind:
The wind will remain quite suitable for powder with this warm front snowfall and will blow moderately to strongly further up, in the foothills of the Alps much stronger than in the inner Alps. Of course, it's still dangerous after all the fresh snow, because there's now a good amount of freight available.
