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WeatherBlog 19 2024/25 | Powdery dreams and fatal nightmares

Spring brings powder, glop and rain

03/19/2025 • by Sebastian Müller

PG-ler in the powder above the high fog

Engelberg
Johanna Korte

PG-ler in the powder above the high fog

Engelberg
Johanna Korte
Both the participants of the PowderGuide final meeting in Engelberg and Mose in the border triangle fully enjoyed the last snowfalls. Elsewhere, unfortunately, there was also slow glop paired with dangerous avalanche conditions. An intermediate high is currently giving us spring fever again, but will be replaced by a southerly flow with lots of precipitation at the weekend. We hope this will bring another PowderAlert, although the state of the precipitation seems to be more liquid than fluffy.

Weather conditions

The winter weather in March has brought good amounts of fresh snow to the south side of the Alps and up to the main Alpine ridge, as announced in the last two PowderAlerts. In Engelberg the PG skiers enjoyed some fantastic powder above a sea of high fog and even Enrico "Mose" Mosetti in Canale Jalovez finally found his favorite conditions. The polar vortex continues to swirl us favorably and must be seen as the main driver of the strongly pronounced meridional (south-north) circulation components over Europe. Europe is currently in a sharp omega position, with a weak intermediate high over the Alps. The strong trough east of the Alps will bring cold polar air masses far south to the Balkans and, towards Thursday, a lot of snow to the Caucasus.

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Omega situation with intermediate high over the Alps and low trough over the Balkans

ECMWF
IFS

Omega situation with intermediate high over the Alps and low trough over the Balkans

ECMWF
IFS

Outlook

A southerly flow is set to return to the Alps at the weekend. The western trough of the Omega, which is currently still over the Iberian Peninsula, will reach the Alps around Friday and will certainly bring precipitation from the Mediterranean. The situation is similar to that of the last PowderAlert. The snow line could be very high, but there will also be a lot of fresh snow at high altitudes. Another PowderAlert with severe restrictions is half certain for the south side of the Alps. The precipitation is expected to be most intense on Sunday, covering the entire southern side of the Alps and also extending far over the main Alpine ridge to the north. Dear oracle, the ball is in your court.

PG athletes in Engelberg

Sebastian Müller
Michael Steger

PG athletes in Engelberg

Sebastian Müller
Michael Steger

Avalanche accidents in northern Italy

In northern Italy, the recent heavy snowfall was partly accompanied by warm temperatures, which resulted in both slow glop and dangerous avalanche conditions. On Monday, an avalanche on the Presena glacier above Passo Tonale caught three German ski tourers on the descent, costing the life of one of them. The avalanche report issued a 3 above the tree line and explicitly warned of slab avalanches in the weakly bonded fresh snow. Near Cortina d'Ampezzo, a female ski tourer and a male ski tourer died in an avalanche on Sunday and even in Mochental, which is very close to me, there was an avalanche accident, but with a happy outcome. These are impressive reminders that powder dreams and avalanche nightmares are sometimes very close together. Stay safe!

Amount of rain on Sunday 23/03/2025

PG-Wetter-v2.4.0
ICON-EU

Amount of rain on Sunday 23/03/2025

PG-Wetter-v2.4.0
ICON-EU

Photo gallery

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