The past few days in the northern Alps have been characterized by sunshine and foehn winds. Low pressure system Yvan slowly moved from the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean and provided the southerly flow that brought us gale-force gusts last weekend. Wind speeds of 140 km/h were measured on the Patscherkofel on Saturday (12.3), 115 km/h on the Zugspitze and an impressive 104 km/h in Innsbruck city center (station at the university).
So it is...
In the south, things were naturally a little different. In south-western congested areas, it has been snowing or raining more or less since the weekend with small interruptions. Flood warnings have now been issued in Piedmont: since the start of the precipitation, the Sassello - Piampaludo station has recorded 240 mm of precipitation, over half of which has fallen in the last 12 hours. The snow line is at 1200-1500m, the Balme - Rifugio Gastaldi station at 2659m reports 47cm of fresh snow within the last 12 hours. Yvan is responsible, just like for spring in the north.
So it will be...
The good Yvan is heading north-east. The first drops have already fallen today (Wednesday, 16.3.) in the languishing northern Alps, and there are even reports of flakes high up. Yvan will bring an occlusion that will nestle gently against the main ridge and bring some precipitation to the eastern southern Alps (Dolomites, East Tyrol, Carinthia) during the night (snow line around 1800 m). Yvan will continue to move and the cold and wet weather will spread to the entire eastern Alps over the next two days, with the snow line slowly dropping.
On Friday, Yvan is already so far to the northeast that we reach its rear end, i.e. a trough-backed, northerly flow. With a bit of luck, up to 50 cm of fresh snow is possible on the northern main ridge and in sufficiently high accumulation areas.
The weekend will be quite bright in the western Alps, in the east there will probably only be some sunshine on Sunday. At the beginning of next week, Yvan may briefly visit the south again, then spring and milder high-pressure weather will return.
Conclusion...
You should enjoy the winter, because it won't last. May the force be with you and may the dark side not tempt anyone to get up to shenanigans in what will most likely be pretty unfavorable avalanche conditions!
