August Snowfall Forecast in the Alps this Weekend

It’s looking like a possible powder weekend on the slopes of some of the half-dozen glacier ski areas currently open in the Alps.

The end of August is a very quiet time in the ski year in the northern hemisphere with most summer ski areas having ended their 2018 openings and few glacier areas yet open for the coming autumn and winter, but mother nature appears to have decided to round out the last weekend of August, and summer by the meteorological measure, by ending the sunny weather with a nice snowfall.

The snow is forecast above about 2000 metres in altitude as a very cold front crosses the Alps.  That’s not unusual for this time of year, although for most skiers and boarders its also nice to see as excitement for the season ahead continues to rise.

Also, as is normal for this kind of late-summer, early-autumn front, warmer air will move in behind so snow that doesn’t land on glaciers is likely to disappear again pretty fast.

Of the open ski areas the Hintertux glacier looks set to see the most snow with 35cm forecast in total through the weekend.  The picture above was taken there in September last year.

A second Austrian glacier, Molltal, is forecast to receive nearly a foot (28cm) of snow, with most of it falling on Sunday.

In Italy Passo Stelvio (pictured above on sunnier days earlier this month) should see 15cm whilst in Switzerland Saas Fee and Zermatt are forecast to receive about 5cm each.

It’s the last weekend of summer skiing in France where Les 2 Alpes is the only centre still open.  Here just a dusting of snow is expected, but it should be a nice way to end the summer season.