PowderAlert 4 2016/17 | Base for the southern high mountains.

Region

The alarm goes from the Maritime Alps and Piedmont to Ticino. The rest of the Southern Alps may also get some, but as it will be very warm, this is more of a side note than an alarm. What's more, it's still very uncertain as it's not supposed to snow there until later.

Everyone else has the Föhn blues and is watching the last remnants of snow from the northern Alps melt. As an exception, the alert will last until Friday morning (normally only 48 hours), as it doesn't matter whether one meter more or less falls in the high mountains and the details haven't changed for several model runs. Please also note that the prediction game includes the snow cover increase from Monday 8 am to Friday 8 am!

Quantities

Enormous in the high mountains! In the core from the Turin Alps via the Monte Rosa/Upper Valais to western Ticino, there will probably be more than 2m of snow cover growth and around 3-4m of new snow, possibly a little more locally. As I said: only above 2500m! In the rest of the Maritime Alps, the increase in snow cover will be somewhere around 1-1.5m and the amount of fresh snow 2-3m. The rest of the Southern Alps may also get some, but it should be somewhere between 30 and 70cm very high up.

Where should I go?

If you want to follow in Ullr's footsteps and be adventurous: south. If it opens up, which is not yet certain, I would go touring from the Simplon Pass on Friday or at the weekend or look for a ski area in the core that has a lot of terrain high up and is open this coming weekend.

I don't know if that's good, because heat, hurricanes and incredible amounts of fresh snow are no guarantee of powder in Ullr's little catechism.