 Poster: A snowHead
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Not very good in Switzerland at the moment, Jungfrau Region ... +3 at 2000m with rain below !!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Chris Brookes, Been keeping an eye on weather further east in Austria and have just noticed the temps going up where it's started raining! Not where I am yet but I hope it stays cold. http://www.wetter.at/
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Zermatt is closed today due to the weather, but should improve over the next few days.
Shouldn't stop me getting there tonight however.
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waynos,
Temps will drop sharply this afternoon, along with the heaviest snow, well that's looking at the rain radar and guessing a bit,
Fingers crossed , some have mentioned the chances of this melting before they get out there in the new year, not over 1800 metres it won't , I,m off on the 2nd can't wait now, but I,m glad I,m not heading out this weekend, Xmas travellers are going t have a great time
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'm heading in the opposite direction to most, back to the UK for xmas and new year. Maybe I'll stop checking the weather when I'm away in the UK, I doubt it.phillip33, Hope you're right, Salzburg now at +10, gone up here at 1000m to +4 though not raining thankfully. Looking at the radar http://www.meteox.co.uk/h.aspx?r=&jaar=-3&soort=loop1uur it does look like it will swing down more from the NW which should as you say drop the temps.
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I'm very confused about temperatures and freezing levels. All the forecasts say something different and the usually reliable empirical method of looking out of the window isn't helping. The temperature according to my thermometer is minus 3 (1550m) as it has been all morning. But it's damp and claggy out there - doesn't look freezing and the scrapings of snow left on the terrace after I dug it out this morning have melted. Precipitating, for about the last hour, but kind of sleety. According to the local website we had 35cms of snow yesterday - I'd say that's about right, though the amount of drifting makes it hard to be sure.
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I think that's what's known amongst experts as an 'inversion', Pam.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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paulio, AFAIK inversions don't happen in this kind of weather - they happen in anticyclones when the air is stable. And if they did, it'd be warmer up here than down in the valley, which is clearly not the case as somebody said this morning it was 10 degrees in Chambery.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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- 0.4 in la Tania and falling, still raining but surely any moment now
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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It was miserable. Rain at resort level, occasionally very heavy, and no lifts open to get high. So no skiing. Up top I'm sure that there are big accumulations, but down low it is less than pleasant.
Rain is turning a bit sleety at Mottaret, so temperatures are beginning to fall I guess.
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Most definitely falling as snow in Serre Chevalier.
rob@rar, probably just as well, the poor pixie would have needed a snorkel.
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You know it makes sense.
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heavy snow in Chester is making my journey very slow back to Leeds!!
Wigglies suggest a sharp temp drop, this is good base building though isn't it? Nice wet snow, that then freezes hard???
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
rob@rar, probably just as well, the poor pixie would have needed a snorkel.
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When you go in head first it doesn't matter how tall you are or whether you are equipped with a snorkel...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Shame though looking at the la Tania webcams showing the mud coming through again , looks like from the radar that the heaviest precipitation will be through before it gets cold enough, sure there,s been snow higher up, and that's where I,ll be,
Hopefully there will be a bit this evening to Whiten things up again
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Snowing heavily in Sion (under 600m) with big temperature fall from Montreux to Martigny
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Very jealous of all of you that are going skiing over Christmas. Hope you all have excellent conditions. My question is - We are going to la plagne in February, does the amount of snow that has already fallen in the past week guarantee a good week's skiing in February? Last year it didnt snow at all beyween Christmas and mid february. Would that matter too much this season given the high accumulation of snow. (Hope this isn't a silly question!)
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| rich38 wrote: |
| does the amount of snow that has already fallen in the past week guarantee a good week's skiing in February? |
Yes. Best of all, Snowheads will guarantee this and give you a full refund on your holiday if it doesn't.
___________________________________________
Offer ends for holidays completed by the end of December 2011
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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rich38, nothing is guaranteed.
But it's probably netter that we've had the snow we have (definitely for anyone out this week...) than not.
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rich38,
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Would that matter too much this season given the high accumulation of snow. (Hope this isn't a silly question!)
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January is normally not a great month for snowfall. But it's also very cold.. so what snow there is will stay around.... so (unless it gets very hot).. most likely you will have snow.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I notice on this feed here that there's quite a strong low churning away off the north west coast of Norway. Remembering a couple of years ago when snowmaggedon hit that there was a similar looking system that tracked all the way down the north sea pulling all of that lovely cold arctic dry snow with it. Any chances this could do the same, or is that purely wishful thinking?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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shoogly, big chance - looks like the high over spain could funnel that bad boy down thru Germany and smack into Austria next Tues/Weds.
Could be a snowy season and to think the last time I ski-ed it was 20c and we were sunbathing by 3.00pm as the slopes had turned into waterfalls
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red 27, it would be nice wouldn't it, just in time for the holidays as well.
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You know it makes sense.
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shoogly, i'm actually hoping at gets held north or pushed east as I'm out in Les Arcs next week and good do with some bluebird powder madness [/selfish]
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Snow continuing this evening, not as heavy as it has been today though temperatures look quite a bit colder over the next few days.
It looks like it will ease off later tomorrow afternoon, picking up again in the early hours of Sunday morning snow showers continuing through Sunday until evening.
ECM keeps temperatures cooler through the middle of the week, but both ECM and GFS suggest milder temperatures around 23 December, slightly less so in the eastern Alps.
The 21 December continues to look like it could provide a fair amount of snow to the Eastern Alps, the freezing level on GFS looks like it could be relatively high (1500m+), although both that and the potential quantity are likely to fluctuate during the coming days. ECM has temperatures much cooler.
SLF take on the day's snowfall.
High avalanche danger in western regions
- "heavy snowfall in western regions in particular. The snowfall level on the northern flank of the Alps ascended to 1800 to 2000 m. In inneralpine regions, the snowfall level generally remained below 1000 m. Between Thursday evening and Friday evening in the western Lower Valais and in northern Valais from Montana into the Aletsch region there was 60 to 100 cm of snowfall. In the remaining Valais, in the western part of the northern flank of the Alps and in the Gotthard region there was 30 to 60 cm of new fallen snow, elsewhere widespread 20 to 30 cm..."
- "[Friday night] temperatures will drop markedly. There will be snowfall down to low lying areas. By Saturday evening, 20 to 40 cm of snowfall is anticipated widespread... The northwesterly wind will be blowing at strong velocity during the morning hours, then slacken off incrementally over the course of the day. "
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Poster: A snowHead
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18z operational takes a lead from ECM in keeping temperatures cooler than some recent runs midweek.
So after this weekend's snow, in the northern Alps.
- Monday would be relatively clear, but cold.
- Tuesday would bring... more snow, rolling in from the west.
- Wednesday would bring... more snow, especially in the east.
- Thursday would bring... more snow in the east. Though temperatures just a little over average.
Southern Alps would see some at times, but it looks milder over the same period on the south side.
Over the other side of the Atlantic...
- Head south young man.
- 2011/12 vs. 1976/77
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Weather in the last 24 hours seems to have been excessively "local". All the forecasts yesterday were for major precipitation, with variations on the FL, but we had practically none all day, whereas places quite close in various directions (e.g. Areches Beaufort, Flumet) report very heavy rain at village level and presumably snow higher up. The forecasts - all of them in different ways - have been fairly spectacularly wrong for our particular location. Metéo France was all over the place, as often seems to be the case, giving us a light breeze overnight, whereas in fact the snow was blowing horizontal.
It's been snowing pretty hard all night, looking out at my balcony, but the weather radar showed very little activity (waynos reported the same from Austria on the Ski Amade thread). All very odd - certainly a very "perturbé" spell of weather.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Worth noting that radar can detect where weather currently is (and from that record where it was), but any projection forward is an animation of expectations of where it might go (which might be based on initial information from a radar).
As for weather being local, that's always the case, much more so between different valleys in the mountains. Even more so during such chaotic weather. By and large that there would be significant rain, storm level winds and heavy snow in the Alps yesterday (and that the temperatures would fluctuate yesterday before dropping sharply and bringing snow to the valleys), and that this would cause disruption and shut places down, seems to have been fairly accurate outside the Beaufortain Triangle. 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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the wetter.at radar has caught up now. http://www.wetter.at/wetter/wetterradar The met office has some info on rain radar, being ground based it's a wonder they work at all in the mountains.http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/radar/tech.html. And more techie info on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_radar#Limitations_and_artifacts. Wind farms apparently interfere with the radar as do mountains.
Still snowing heavily here  I note the temps at Salzburg airport are 12 degrees colder than yesterday afternoon. The wiggles are showing a big dollop of precip for next wed & thurs though with rising temps. I leave for Xmas on Thurs so hopefully get some powder in just before it warms up.
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As far as I understand it (having managed to stay awake through a few presentations on the subject), weather radar is not very reliable in mountainous areas due to 'shadowing' effects; although they try and site the radar at high elevations, it doesnt work much better than line of sight so that some areas behind nearby mountains are masked. They try and get around this by pointing the radar higher into the sky, but then this only tells you about what is happening at high altitude in the cloud and not where the heaviest precipitation is forming towards the base. This problem obviously increases with distance from the radar installation. You can often see the shadow effects in animated radar images of the Alps where precipitation suddenly 'disappears' along a quite well defined line. The other problem is interference; you can see this in radar images on cloudless days when there is no precipitation occurring but you can nevertheless see bright speckles in the image. One obvious solution is to increase the density of radars, but these are very expensive. A cool solution would be to make more use of the mobile phone network which operates on a similar frequency, but unfortunately none of the mobile phone operators have so far been willing to allow (much) research on this which they regard as commercially sensitive. This is doubly sad, since apart from getting a better angle on where the snow is falling, it could also revolutionise weather forecasting in countries too poor to afford full scale weather radar systems.
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FreeBeer, very interesting, thanks. 
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Monday still looks the clearest day. Snow easing off a little late tonight before picking up again overnight and through much of Sunday (though not on the same scale).
Some very cold overnight temperatures Monday and Tuesday night.
Come Tuesday snow looks like it will be returning from the west. It doesn't look huge on Tuesday, certainly nothing on the scale of Friday, but it wouldn't have been sniffed at last season. Wednesday sees further snowfall, looking heavy, especially in eastern Switzerland and western Austria.
What is less clear is the snow line. It looks at present on GFS like it could rise to 1500m on Wednesday evening possibly a bit cooler on ECM. Thursday sees heavy snow continue in the eastern Alps, but again with a potentially quite high snow line (and obviously heavy rain below).
Through Christmas Eve temperatures look like falling quite sharply (by around 10C) and seeing further snowfall, stronger in the eastern Alps.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
A cool solution would be to make more use of the mobile phone network which operates on a similar frequency, but unfortunately none of the mobile phone operators have so far been willing to allow (much) research on this which they regard as commercially sensitive.
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I have seen a few papers on this (such as http://www.rmets.org/events/wrah/detail1.php?recordID=45). I think there is some potential for development in this area as it has advantages for the mobile phone operators too. Heavy rain attenuates the links between masts and prompts activity to optimise the network and try to avoid loss of signal for customers. Its likely it would supplement current radar rainfall estimation rather than replace it - allowing the images to be adjusted with the near ground data that is hard to get using conventional radar.
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I have to say now I,m just two weeks from departure I wish I was going this weekend, the forecasts ( wiggles) all seem to be heading in the wrong direction for me, temps up and not much sign of snow, they have been quite consistent for a few days now for the end of the runs, hope there wrong which of course they could be this far out, but they have been consistent for a while, and what has often been said on this thread by people a lot more in the know than me, you look for trends
Feeling a bit half empty tonite, but at least my glass isn't !! All set for strictly I bet brucie comes off the bench and clears up!!
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