PowderAlert 3 2016/17 | South jam kick-off

Areas

Alert areas are the French Alps, in particular everything that is favored by south-west traffic jams, e.g. south of the Ecrins and the Southern Alps. The core areas are probably the Upper Engadine and the border area between Carinthia, Italy and Slovenia. With the passage of the cold front, the northern Swiss Alps up to the Arlberg may also reach almost the alarm level of 30cm.

I would still suggest the Bernina area of Switzerland as an alarm measuring station, as it is raining very high in the east and there is no station above 2000m in the core. Measuring period Friday 18:00 to Sunday 6:00. Snow cover growth is measured, as this is best seen in reality and is what I am referring to.

The snow line

You know this by now. Unfortunately, a current from the south almost always brings warm air to our latitudes. But while it will drop to 1000m in France from Saturday as the cold front passes through and the areas of western Italy up to Ticino will remain cooler with a south/south-westerly current, this will have a full impact in Slovenia/eastern Italy. For the sake of simplicity, I'm indicating the amounts in the west (roughly from the Adamello/Engadine and France Northern Alps) from 1800m and from 2300m in the east. Below that it can (in the east) and will (in the west) also snow, but there won't be much due to subsidence and glop^tm. It hardly snows in the northeast

Where should I go?

Saturday is extremely difficult, because I don't think there will be enough snow anywhere with visibility. Sunday you could go higher up in the west, where there was a base underneath, or in the Engadine to take advantage of the short break before the next südstau. It won't be ideal anywhere, but if the upper limit of the alert is not reached in the Upper Engadine, I would head west and take the 30 cm on a base with me. Nothing works in the north. Stay at home and drink in the Föhn storm.

Medium-term

This is just the prelude to what will probably be a whole series of southern and south-eastern thaw alerts that will continue from Sunday. When the calculated amounts arrive, it will be very interesting in terms of base formation from 2000m.