Snowfall Returns To The Alps
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
It’s snowing in much of Europe and Scandinavia today after a week of low temperatures which kept existing snow bases in good condition, but didn’t bring much new accumulation.
Reports of up to 90cm (three feet) of new snow in the past 24 hours have been made from Swiss resorts to snow reporting agency www.skiinfo.co.uk, although the majority are reporting 10-30cm (4 inches to a foot).
Most of the snow reported so far this morning is in Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia. Among the beneficiaries are Austria’s Skiwelt region including resorts like Soll and Westendorf, and neighbouring areas like St Johann in Tyrol, which report 10m *4 inches) of new snow so far today.
In Switzerland Davos has received 15cm (6 inches) to please the world’s great and good who are gathered there for the annual World Economic Forum. Engelberg, Cans Montana and Arosa have reported 10cm (four inches) of fresh powder.
The European snow follows huge falls in western North America where Mount Washington in Vancouver, currently hosting more than 25 international teams who are there to train for the coming winter Olympics just over a fortnight away, has the deepest snow on the continent with 3.99m (just over 13 feet).
Whistler has a slightly smaller base but has reported 9.9m (33 feet) falling since the start of their season in November – a record accumulation this early in the season.
Elsewhere Jackson Hole in Wyoming and mammoth in California are among many resorts in Western North America reporting at least a metre of snow in the past week. Snowbird in Utah say they’ve had seven feet (2.1m) in seven days.
Resorts in Eastern North America had not been doing so well with warmer temperatures and some rain on the slopes last week, but it has got colder and there’s been new snow in the past few days, with Stowe reporting a foot of new powder.
