Snow Forecast Summary - November 20th 2008

Do read this one folks - it's really quite alright!

It's time to watch your favourite web-cams (well, maybe wait until the morning). Following good early snows, ski resorts in the Pyrenees (French and Spanish) have opened early and are reporting good conditions and a good early base.

Now it's the turn of the Alps, however, as the main action comes in from the North over the next few days.

Weather and Snow Next Week

The event we hinted at in last week's message has sat solidly in the forecast and is shaping up to be a snowfall event of special magnificence.

Very cold air is being drawn down from the North and over The Alps, where it will collide with moisture hanging over the area in the current system.

Temperatures will fall fast over the next 24-48 hours, with significant quantities of snow arriving over the same period.

Austria is first in the firing line, with snow starting to fall in Northern areas late on Thursday. By Friday morning heavy snow will be falling to the North and will extend Southwards quite quickly. Heavy snow will continue to fall throughout the weekend and through Monday, with many north alpine ski areas seeing accumulations approaching one metre (maybe more) of fresh.

Exactly how far South the snow will reach is not clear, but it's looking good for at least The Tarentaise and beyond.

If you are out in the mountains, you should expect travel disruption as the cold temperatures will bring snow to the valley floor almost everywhere.

Enhanced Snow Forecasts

Over the next few days we'll be completing the roll out of our greatly enhanced Snow Forecasts for the 2009 Ski Season.

Have a browse around the J2Ski Snow Forecast pages; look out for detailed 48-hour and six-day forecasts being added to the existing 7-day summary, and a bunch of new resorts to take our total snow forecast coverage past 800 locations!

Keep an eye on this forum for further announcements and tips on how to make the best of the forecasts!

Nice Snow Report, Admin. Concise and on-topic :thumbup:

figures are showing that in terms of average snowfall over the 10 years levels are currently 170% of average across much of Switzerland which is quite a bit really.

this may sound really stupid but going skiiing for first tine on sat in austrai and want to kno0w if 20cm is enough to learn to ski on on lower slopes

Yes.

catrinmorrissey@hotmail.c wrote:this may sound really stupid but going skiiing for first tine on sat in austrai and want to kno0w if 20cm is enough to learn to ski on on lower slopes

Hi catrrin, welcome to J2ski.

It isn't stupid catrin, it's a first time sensible question. All the main slopes, including the beginners slopes, will have been pisted. That means a large tractor like vehicle will have flattened and combed the snow, and made it easy to ski on. And yes 20cm will have been enough. In most resorts, snow cannons will have added more snow to the beginner runs, and this will have added to the depth.

You might want to change your J2ski name to something a little less direct. All the regular J2skiers here are nice folk, but you never know who's lurking. There is a contact route through J2ski without giving your direct email address.