Winter returns to France

17th March 2011, by Chris Gill

Serre Chevalier Villeneuve at 5am on Thursday 17 March

More snowfall is bringing a wintry feel back to resorts in the southern French Alps this week. The picture shows the scene in Serre Chevalier at 5am this morning, when Wednesday’s rainfall at valley level turned to snow overnight. Higher up the mountain it has been snowing intermittently since Tuesday, heaviest on Wednesday night. This is on top of last weekend’s 35cm.

The snow is, however, a little wetter in the mild weather. But there is very good powder across the whole of the upper mountain slopes. As we left the resort the Col du Lauteret was still open, but with drifting snow. The cloud and snowfall has continued throughout Thursday, so conditions are particularly good on piste above mid-mountain now.

Elsewhere, resorts such as Isola 2000 also welcomed heaps of fresh powder in a mid-March snow burst. And the snow has moved north in to the Three Valleys and Espace Killy on Thursday too. The Pyrenees has also done well again, with Cauterets now boasting a 200cm base.

It’s not just France, as the unsettled weather has moved across Italy, Austria and parts of Switzerland. Amounts so far are between 20-30cm, above 1400-1500m. We’ll round up these in our Snow Overview on Friday.

• serre chevalier

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