The season is still young, but a lot has already happened in terms of weather and, above all, snow in the not-yet-quite-winter. Motivated powder fans opened many a valley run at the end of October after a friendly combination of low pressure areas north and south of the Alps left up to half a meter of fresh snow in places. Subsequently, a low pressure system in Italy caused südstau and a slowly growing base on the main ridge, while in the north almost everything was swallowed up again by the voracious Föhn.
T-shirt weather in November
November began with t-shirt weather due to a strong zonal westerly flow, which kept the air mass boundary between the cold polar air and the mild air far to the north for a long time. Temperatures in the Alps were similar to those in Spain (see weather map from November 5). A low pressure system across the Alps brought a few token flakes around November 10, which were promptly wiped out in another week of bathing weather with occasional mild showers. The higher southern Alps and parts of the main ridge benefited at least to some extent.
Weather conditions with plenty of bang
Around November 21, the long-awaited turnaround came and since then, refreshingly icy air has been flowing to us from the north. As expected, one or two heavy snowfalls in the last few days ensured relatively widespread conditions and traffic chaos in the lowlands, depending on the wind. To the great delight of weather freaks, an Italian low and cold air masses met in the north, which the jargon calls "a weather situation with a lot of bang behind it."
The weather forecasts in the Alpine region have recently been characterized above all by general uncertainty. The models could not decide where, what and how much until shortly before the respective precipitation (or not) event and even longer-term forecasts often failed due to the different hourly estimates of the models.
What's next?
For the course of next week, a lot depends on where the air mass boundary will run. While northern Germany is likely to see record cold temperatures, winter in the Alps is once again on shaky ground. The weekend is likely to remain cold, after which hardly any model will be able to commit itself, as the air mass boundary and thus the decision between too warm and too cold could run both north and south of the Alps. A warming trend seems likely, at least at the beginning of the week. The good news for all weekend skiers: Saturday should be sunny and cold again, with some fresh snow in the east in particular.
