Where to Ski And Snowboard - Second snow storm arrives in the Alps

Second snow storm arrives in the Alps

25th November 2015, by Abi Butcher

What a difference a week makes: Val d’Isère is preparing to open on Saturday

In case it has escaped your notice, winter has arrived in the Alps. After weeks of warm, sunny weather, the forecast storms blew in over the weekend dumping up to 120cm of snow in places and delivering bitterly cold temperatures.

Everyone can breath a sigh of relief now as a second wave of snow has started to fall, allowing a host of different resorts to open for the season this weekend.

Courchevel has opened three slopes for free today, as part of its pre-season warm-up. The Austrian resort of Ischgl opens tomorrow, with The Beach Boys its famous Top of the Mountain Concert on Saturday.

Some of the big names and most popular resorts with Brits are opening this weekend, including Val Thorens, which postponed its opening date by a week, as well as Val d’Isère (above) and the Swiss resort of Verbier.

But some areas of the Alps are not faring quite so well.

“Most of the southern Alps (which includes Italy, away from the extreme north-west) will only see negligible snowfall totals, with many places missing out altogether,” says our snow expert Fraser Wilkin in today’s snow report from Weather to Ski.

“Over the next 36 to 48 hours we can expect between 20cm and 50cm of new snow across the northern French, and northern and western Swiss Alps. In Austria (away from the south) the range will be more like 10-30cm though locally a bit more is possible.”

What a difference a week makes!