Snow-Forecast.com Snow News

New Location for Snow News Blogs

2008-01-17T01:11:00.000-08:00

We hope you enjoyed our weekly news here at Blogspot. They have now moved to a new home and can be found HERE

World Snow News 24: 14th December 2007

2007-12-14T02:51:00.001-08:00

Welcome to this week’s world snow roundup from www.snow-forecast.com. Our sponsor for this edition is Snowbrainer - an online ski & snowboard hire site where you book online and collect in the resort saving you both time and money. Readers of our newsletter qualify for a massive 40% off the shop prices in France on all bookings 6 or more days for any week of the season. Just visit http://www.snowbrainer.co.uk/index.asp?affiliate_code=SF4040

Summary:

Parts of French Alps see 1m of snow in time for Christmas

Settled but cold week ahead for Alps

Ice Storm hits US, brings a little snow to resorts

Conditions in Canada set to improve again

Snowstorm forecast for Appalachians this weekend

Fresh snow in Pyrenees at last

Glencoe saved by Invocas

Resorts in Lebanon and NW Spain see fresh falls - now close to opening

It is not often that mid December finds skiers spoiled for choice. The combination of a strengthening La Niña in the Pacific and a weak North Atlantic Oscillation means that most of the ski areas of the world are currently in great shape. So many areas saw fresh snow last week that it begins to look like calling this winter a good season is a foregone conclusion. For much of North America, where conditions in the States have improved dramatically during December, it's unlikely to take a turn for the worse. Even so, despite the great start, European resorts are more vulnerable to mild winds as well as long periods without fresh snow so it's a bit early to be confident about the peak months. With an intense high pressure system now building over the Alps it won't take too long before all this wonderful fresh snow is tracked out. The piste cruisers won't mind if it doesn't snow before Christmas, but off-piste powder hounds may be more interested in the snowier weather around Europe's more obscure edges.

It's simpler to mention the few places that don't have great conditions right now than list all those that do. In previous editorials I was pessimistic about the prospects for resorts in Southern California, but even here there they have had about 25cm of snow over the past week. In no particular order, here are some places that are not doing so well this season. Scotland doesn't have great snow depths and is subject to mild SW winds - probably the last thing the new owners of Glencoe wanted to hear. The Pyrenees have seen some snow at last, but the base isn't yet deep enough to be too excited about - but at least they can look forward to new snow next week. Further south, The Sierra Nevada has received very little snow so far this season, and there isn't much sign of that changing. In Scandinavia the snow is getting a bit too old and hard packed for some tastes and with little prospect of fresh snow next week, there are better destinations to aim for.

The Alps
The fresh snow has fallen much as expected. Over a metre fell in the northern French Alps. Valais in Switzerland did well too. Indeed, no major Alpine resort missed out entirely, even if Isola 2000 saw just 2cm. The present mid-week dry and cold weather has followed as forecast too, but the big mistake in last week’s editorial was predicting that Atlantic fronts would return around now. In reality they got about as far as Ireland and stalled. Instead, the ridge of high pressure crossing the Alps quickly became much more intense than expected and now it looks like it is going to sit over central and western Europe for at least a week as a cold stagnant pool of air. The worry is that once established, it could prove reluctant to shift. The North Atlantic Oscillation isn't driving depressions into Europe with the usual vigour and anticyclones over continental Europe at this time of year cool down so quickly - the combined effect risks ringing a sudden end to the pattern of frequent Alpine snowfalls just as we started taking them for granted. Easterlies with snow flurries are still affecting Austria and the Dolomites. These look like they may spread across the Italian and French Maritime Alps for a time with much more significant snow for the Apennines. These cloudy easterlies will fade away by Sunday and these southern Alpine areas will then join the rest of the Alps in having good weather and excellent fresh snow conditions - certainly the best conditions of the season so far in much of France and Switzerland where upper level snow depths are near the 2m mark. There is just a hint that if the anticyclone drifts over Britain as expected, snowy SE winds may return to the southern areas of the Alps in France and Italy next week. Atlantic fronts looks like they will make another attempt to invade Europe in 5 or 6 days as a deepening depression forms off Portugal. As that depression slides away northwards there is a risk of heavy snowfall where it comes up against the cold continental air. It is a long way off, but central and northern Spain, SW France and perhaps even southern Britain are at risk of a period of snow from Thursday through the weekend and it is just possible that the cold air will not have been overcome before Christmas. Hopefully the low pressure will track further into Europe than we expect.

Pyrenees and Iberia
The Pyrenees and Cantabrian resorts got the snow that we forecast last week. Although they saw nothing like the depths reported in the French Alps, it was nevertheless very welcome because it had been so dry for so long - something like 15cm of snow fell in Andorra, more to the west. Current models predict a low latitude Atlantic depression next week will run up along the Portuguese coast next week. Although the wind will tend south over Spain, the airmass is quite cold and we should see some mid-week snow from this system on nearby mountains like Serra da-Estrela in Portugal and the Cantabrians too. It should be sufficient to get places like San-Isidro open. SSE winds, squeezed between this low and the European anticyclone blowing off the Mediterranean may also bring further snow to the Pyrenees - more especially to the eastern resorts; places like Masella in Spain.

Scotland
The Scottish season spluttered to life a couple of weeks ago and since then the lifts have occasionally been running at Cairngorm but yesterday they were again closed because of high winds which have whipped away a lot of the snow here and almost all of the cover from nearby Lecht. The Ptarmigan bowl should have sufficient cover to allow skiing again once the wind subsides but overall it's not a good forecast for Scottish resorts because it is on the wrong side of the European anticyclone which means it is currently picking up mild SW Atlantic air. It's above freezing with severe gales on Thursday afternoon - especially in the west. This is something that might come as a surprise to people from England where it is mostly cold and frosty. As the high shifts towards Britain, we should at least sea both the wind and freezing level fall next week but any surviving snow may turn icy in these conditions. Apart from a few flurries off the N Sea, no substantial snow is forecast during the next seven days but a chance of better conditions in time for Christmas. Following a successful purchase today from Invocas, Glencoe is open for business and awaiting suitable ski conditions. We wish them the very best of luck - on a good day, Glencoe offers the best skiing in the British Isles and it is heartening to hear that it will be business as usual in 2008.

Scandinavia
We mentioned the prospect of cold and dry air edging in from the SE and that is just what happened. It was initially good news but after a few days it has left the pistes quite hard. The mild SW flow will clip northern Norway at first, but otherwise a predominantly cold and dry prospect for at least a week.

Eastern Europe
Resorts in Bulgaria are in good shape following more snow on Wednesday. Only Bansko is open right now (with 1.6m at the top) but all resorts have great conditions and can expect a period of heavy snow on Saturday night followed by a cold week with a mix of sunny and cloudy days. Neighbouring Greece is less well known to foreign skiers which is a shame because nowhere on the Greek mainland is very far from a ski resort. The local Aegean climate has thrown up a few climatic oddities like the spectacularly snow-sure (and exceptionally scenic) Mount Pilion, near Volos - a snow magnet when an easterly blows and with ideal conditions forecast, we expect heavy falls there in the week to allow them to open next weekend. Kaimaktsalan near the northern city of Florina is already fully open and is also expecting more snow through Saturday. Sunday should be perfect. Most Athenian skiers head to Mount Parnassos, above Dephi on the northern shores of the Gulf of Korinthos. A day pass costs just 13.5 Euros on quiet weekdays. There is currently 15-20cm base and temperatures are -10C and with two spells of snow expected next week; one on Saturday and another on Monday, and according to local oracles, it should open for skiing very soon. Turkey has far higher mountains than Greece and its high plateau gives it a much more continental climate with bitterly cold and often snowy winters. Scattered light to moderate snowfalls are forecast for the next week. Heaviest snow is forecast for the Balkans at resorts like Tara in Serbia and Montenegro - this snow will be carried on cold east winds first to the Apennines of Italy, and later for Corsica and Sardinia too.

Hermon in Israel has just a dusting of snow at the top and the next 7 days will see a mix of rain and snow so it probably won't open until January. Higher altitude resorts in Lebanon have a much better cover and need just one more fall to open and we expect there to be sufficient new snow this week to allow opening next weekend and if Friday's snow is as heavy as expected. Perhaps Faraya may open as early as Saturday 15th.

Canadian Rockies and West Coast
After a relatively dry spell, the winter storms are gathering again. Whistler is currently 86% open and has about 130cm of base following 10cm of snow three days ago - it's cloudy and cold and there are light flurries of snow. There is a great deal more snow in the forecast. The problem may be finding long weather-windows to enjoy it because apart from a brief hiatus mid-week when the sun may come out for a few hours, it looks like it will stay cloudy and snowy for much of the next 10 days. These systems will penetrate well inland too, bringing regular top-ups at the usual suspects in Alberta where conditions are already excellent.

American Rockies
The bare slopes of late autumn have been rapidly transformed by a succession of weather systems and in the space of 2 weeks, snow accumulations have caught up with European levels - Breckenridge and Copper Mountain now both have over a metre. The most recent notable system was an ice-storm that brought chaos to several states in the mid-west and has left many there without power as cables and branches snapped under the weight of ice. As the system moved away into Canada, rain turned to snow in the polar air that followed. Most of the weather action was west of the Rockies but many resorts there saw a light covering. There is light snow around the Colorado Rockies over the next day or so too. Settled weather following on as pressure builds next week.

California
Northern California and Nevada may have been late starters this season, but they are catching up fast. A few weeks ago it was warm and sunny but lately it has turned cold and snowy. It went straight from summer to autumn. 40cm of fresh snow was reported from resorts around Tahoe last week and the forecast could not be better - a sunny weekend for making fresh tracks before another system brings more heavy snow on Tuesday and staying cold too. Even Southern California received some snow last week, with 25cm falling on the local Los Angeles resorts - places where they don't really care if it snows as long as it is cold enough for snow-making, and happily it is - more trails are being opened daily at the local LA resorts.

Appalachians
Again, we have to look to the Gulf of Mexico to see what the weather has in store for the eastern USA and Canada and the Appalachian resorts. A deepening low is forecast to quickly track NE over the weekend bringing some especially ugly weather to a wide region - strong wind, heavy rain, snow and more ice. It's a complex weather picture that is evolving quickly so I suggest you closely watch the resort forecasts because the details will change. Stowe in Vermont is typical of resorts in the region in having between 40 and 140 cm of snow at present following a light covering of 7cm a few days ago. We expect all Appalachian resorts to have a very snowy weekend as this system passes. In Canada, Mount Saint Anne did well last week too. It has partly cloudy skies, with temperatures reaching close to -20 degrees Celsius on Thursday following 18cm of snow on Tuesday. Staying bitterly cold too. It will be Sunday before the passing storm delivers the next heavy fall of snow. Excellent sunny skiing conditions will follow across the Appalachians before a second system takes off on a similar track in a week.

Hawaii
Surely a typo? Not at all. Daytime temperatures on the 4200m summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island average -4C in the winter. It's usually well above the rain-forest clouds but easterly storms can bring occasional deep snow. With vast tracts of cinder, it only needs a moderate fall to allow skiing. It sometimes gets good enough to tempt local surfers out of the sea and on exceptional winter days the road up to the summit sees trucks ferrying local skiers and boarders who can enjoy a respectable 1000m of wide tropical vertical if conditions are right and they are right now. There was once such big storm 6 days ago and the snow cover is still excellent. Expect cold weather and low temperatures and snow showers over the next 7 days.

World Snow News 22: 2nd December 2007

2007-12-04T05:10:00.000-08:00

First, sincere apologies to users for a patchy service from Snow-forecast at the end of last week. Our website comprises many hundreds of thousands of pages, most of which usually update at least two or four times per day. In order to balance the load, this information is distributed between several servers. On Thursday, one of these computers developed an intermittent fault that prevented some updates. We didn't spot the problem right away. We moved its content to a spare machine but it took some time for this change of address to be recognized by web routers. Some users have written in to say that they saw a mix of missing, old and up to date content between Friday until Saturday lunchtime - we are very sorry if you were affected. Static maps were worst affected, resort forecasts slightly affected and dynamic maps were unaffected. As of Saturday lunchtime, all systems were running normally and all users are viewing the current forecast on the new server. Should a similar problem occur again, we are confident that we have found a solution for making new servers visible much faster.

Summary

A change to stormy Westerly winds for Europe
Heavy snow expected across northern Alps
Very mixed weather for Scandinavia and Scotland
Snowfall for the American Rockies at last
Pyrenees to see first heavy snow in a week – perhaps.
Whistler is the place to be next week

In meteorological terms, December marks the official start of the northern winter. This year, over Europe we have seen a switch away from the decidedly wintry weather pattern that dominated autumn to a much more autumnal weather pattern. Whereas autumn was characterized by cold northerlies and record breaking snowfalls across the Alps, this has been replaced by disturbed westerly Atlantic air-stream – often stormy over Britain and Scandinavia. If this had happened more than a week or two ago, the attendant warmer temperatures and rain would have melted much of the Alpine snow cover. Arriving later, the Atlantic flow is now cool enough for snow rather than rain to fall across much of the Alps. Very little of this disturbed weather reaching the Pyrenees where it remains mostly settled for another week. Across the Atlantic in America the weather patterns have improved. A weather system developed over Baja last week and tracked NE across the continent to the Great Lakes. This system has brought a very welcome fall of snow to many Rocky Mountain and Appalachian ski areas as well as the vast number of little ski areas in between.

The Alps

Last week was mostly fine but the weather is quickly becoming steadily less settled. Not everywhere was dry last week – Flachau in Austria reported 20cm of fresh snow on Tuesday. Many more Austrian resorts have opened this weekend leading to fresh tracks for many, even if the snow is a few days old. Snow depths remain very impressive for the time of year.

With low pressures tracking well to the north of the Alps, the forecast is for the heaviest snow to be confined to the northern areas of the Alps where 20 or 30cm falls will be typical. Favored areas will include many parts of the French Alps that have missed out on the record November dumps in Austria and Switzerland. For example, there is just 50cm of snow on the glacier at Tignes compared with over 2m at Kaprun. Both will see new snow very soon, but it will be windy. The heaviest snowfalls will be on Monday with freezing levels about 1500m in France and 500m lower further east. It looks like there will be a brief mild and settled spell for all mid-week before further westerlies blow in more snow and falling temperatures later in the week.

Pyrenees and Iberia

High pressure has been centred near the Pyrenees since summer. Last week, I mentioned that there was a chance of a snow-bringing Easterly flow to be established before Atlantic air pushed in but these hopes were unfounded. With high pressure once again located around Iberia, forcing fronts to track further north, we don't see much prospect of significant snow for another week, apart from a few bits and pieces, mainly in the west at places like Formigal. Snow cover at the resorts is currently very sparse compared with the Alps. It looks like a secondary low may form in the Bay of Biscay on Saturday. That's a long way off, but if this goes according to plan it will bring very welcome snow both to the Pyrenees and the Massif Central. Even the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain should also see snow from this system. Further south, a dry week in the Sierra Nevada. Still no sign of winter for Serra da Estrela in Portugal and the more snow-sure alternative Sierra de Bйjar across the Spanish border.

Scotland

Autumn may have been fairly settled but Atlantic gales are the theme for the week ahead. With low pressure nearby, it is going to be a very unsettled week. Freezing levels will vary greatly as the wind varies between mild SW and cold NW so expect a mixture of heavy rain and snow showers with a notably mild day on Tuesday. Later in the week the air tends much colder and periods of heavy and drifting snow should resume filling in between the snow-fences. Don't be too surprised if Scottish resorts open for skiing next weekend. The snowy weather will again extend right down the Pennines at times but we don't presently expect enough snowfall to allow any of the small English club fields to open yet.

Scandinavia

With a westerly flow Scandinavia is seeing the same unsettled picture as Scotland but unlike Scotland resorts are already open and places like Voss have 50cm of snow. The mild winds on Tuesday and Wednesday look like they will lift freezing levels above the resorts and bring some unwelcome rain before more windy and snowy weather returns later in the week. Even then, with low pressure staying to the West, it will remain milder than recently.

Eastern Europe

We expect widespread moderate falls of snow across mountain regions over the next few days. Heavier snowfalls for Turkey later in the week too but becoming drier further west. Borovets is reporting just 10cm of snow right now but the good news is that it is -7 degrees about the tops and there is fairly heavy snow forecast for Tuesday.

Canadian Rockies and West Coast

Whistler continues to enjoy good early season conditions with about 1m of snow across the upper mountain. We are expecting very heavy snowfall and low temperatures this weekend, not clearing until Tuesday or even Wednesday when conditions should be perfect for at least 4 or 5 days. Inland, around Banff, there are even lower temperatures with a prospect of powder snowfalls this week.

American Rockies

A weather system brought up to 23 cms (9 inches) of very welcome snow to parts of the Rockies last Wednesday. Steamboat (35cm), Jackson Hole (55/95cm) and Solitude all saw 10–15cm. Since then, ski resorts across Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico have benefited from a second and larger winter storm that is currently tracking across the continent – on Saturday morning Vail has reported 10cm of fresh and it is still snowing there. Previously snow-starved Durango reports 22 inches of fresh snow this morning and plans to open for the season tomorrow (Sunday). As it moves away east, this system will deliver a mix of snow, rain and freezing rain to much of the mid west and the Appalachians. The heaviest snow (more than 30cm) is expected to fall at small resorts west of the Great Lakes; obscure little ski areas in Minnesota that cater mainly for locals. Watch out for another mid-continental low to develop on Thursday and bring more snow to the American Rockies. Very cold right now around Tahoe but with mild weather mid-week before it turns much colder again. No fresh snow expected until Thursday and even then, just a dusting.

Appalachians

The snow affecting the mid-west will clip the inland Appalachians on Sunday but the heaviest snow will track through the Great Lakes region and later Quebec and Nova Scotia. That's good news for dozens of minor resorts that hardly anyone has heard of! Of the more famous resorts in this region, Mont Tremblant is well placed to see fresh snow from Sunday through Tuesday, followed by very low temperatures. They already have a 20–50cm base with a few cm of fresh snow on top.

The Snow-Forecast.com team

World Snow News 21 - 23rd November 2007

2007-11-23T02:42:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the latest roundup of worldwide snow conditions, together with weather prospects for the week ahead from www.snow-forecast.com.

First, a couple of announcements. Today saw the launch of our new website platform utilising the latest web platform. This will deliver a smoother user experience and also enable us to roll out many of the new features that have kept us busy for the past year.

If you are a member of the Facebook networking community, we have launched our own group which attracted over 900 members on its first day. This is a place for news updates, photos and a chance to meet other users of snow-forecast.com. Click here to visit.

Headlines

Exceptionally good early season conditions in Austria and parts of Switzerland - the best start to a season in 30 to 50 years.
A brief mid week outbreak of gusty Föhn winds is ending - cold conditions will return to the Alps by the weekend.
French Alps benefited from a 40cm fall of fresh snow and a brief mild spell has already given way to fresh snowfalls
Cold temperatures have arrived in California at last - snow-making is underway but the natural cover is still in short supply.
Western Canada continues to enjoy excellent early season conditions and more snow is forecast.
Telluride is the latest major Western US ski area to postpone its opening date this weekend as weather patterns stack against the Rockies this winter.

European Alps
November 2006 may have been the warmest on record in the Alps, but November 2007 has provided Austria, Germany and parts of Switzerland with the best early season conditions for at least 30 years.

Even before last week’s snow storms a number of Austrian ski resorts had already opened as much as six weeks ahead of schedule - Schladming-Dachstein opened its doors on 26 October and Kitzbuehel on 2 November. On Thursday night, heavy snow falls saw thousands of drivers left stranded on a highway outside Vienna - up to 50cm of snow fell and about 5,000 cars were involved in a 21km jam along the highway. This low altitude snow followed two days of heavy snow at higher elevations and overall accumulations at ski resorts were much higher. 120cm of snow fell around Davos and Klosters, and as much as 2.5m has accumulated on the glacier at Kaprun. Low temperatures ensured that the fresh snow stayed dry and powdery through the sunny weekend and several more resorts opened early to take advantage including Badgastein, Zell am See, Saalbach-Hinterglemm and Mayrhofen. The German part of the Alps also saw very heavy snow - deep fresh powder conditions where enjoyed by huge crowds at Garmisch-Partenkirchen last weekend. Bitterly cold temperatures at high altitude (below minus 15C at 3000m) rendered the snow on higher pistes sticky but off piste conditions were excellent from top to bottom. In Switzerland, The Jungfrau resorts of Grindelwald (45/115cm), Wengen (40/80cm) and Muerren (40/80cm) have impressive snow depths for the time of year too. They are only open at weekends until they open daily for the season from the 8th December. On Tuesday temperatures began to climb across the Swiss and Austrian Alps as the wind swung southerly. By Wednesday a gusty Föhn wind was strong enough to close glacier resorts and warm enough to strip away much of the snow below about 1500m from prone areas on the north side of the Alps, from Sion in the Rhone in the West, through Chur in eastern Switzerland (where a balmy 15 degrees was recorded) to Innsbruck where it was 13 degrees at 1am on Friday.

As pressure builds over Western Europe, the Föhn wind is steadily being replaced by a cold northerly - temperatures in some valleys will fall by 20 degrees in less than 24hrs! During the transition, there will be some new snow about - it's already snowing across the French and Swiss Alps and this will snow spread to Austria soon. We don't expect anything like the metre-plus falls of the previous system. Even so, we could easily see 20-30cm of snow in the French, Swiss and Italian Alps and only a little less in Austria. Snow clouds should clear from the west as the weekend progresses to leave a cold and settled week, though weather models are finely balanced with some having the snowy northerly persist for several days.

Eastern Europe
While snow conditions in Austria have made the headlines, neighbouring countries have also seen unusually good early season conditions but in these places the relatively low altitude means that some of the snow that fell a week ago has since melted.

The same system delivered heavy snow right across the Czech Republic, to Poland and Slovakia. A secondary depression formed south of the Alps and this one ran across Italy, the Balkans, Greece and eventually Turkey. Unfortunately, the most notable weather that resulted was widespread flooding for Greece and Western Turkey. Even so, high mountain areas across this region saw very heavy snowfalls and despite rising temperatures, much of this base remains intact at ski resorts from the Apennines of Italy to the Taurus of Turkey - even the summits of the Balearics saw some snow.

The next 7 days will see a return to cold weather. Settled at first but becoming increasingly snowy from Sunday onwards from the Apennines, through the Balkans, Carpathians Bulgaria and northern Turkey.

Scotland
It has been quite wintry over northern Britain lately. The cold northerly airflow that is heading for the Alps brought a period of snow to the Scottish Highlands on Thursday. With summit temperatures falling to -7C and gale force winds, conditions are very severe for the time of year. There will be further snow showers for the Grampians on Friday too. On Saturday, an Atlantic depression will pass north of Scotland bringing another spell of snow over the Highlands as milder Atlantic air comes up against the resident cold air. As cloud clears away, the northerlies will return and snow showers will last right through the weekend. Next week begins settled and frosty but there is some indication that high pressure will slip to the south of Britain allowing milder SW winds to cross Northern Britain.

Scandinavia
Whereas the present weather pattern is delivering Scotland a typical freeze-thaw cycle, in Scandinavia the warm spells are much closer to zero degrees and so a snow base has accumulated. In Norway, Geilo (5/5cm) is now open for winter snow sports despite a shallow snow base. 5cm of snow fell on Thursday morning and they have four pistes open. Dustings of snow also fell at the other open resorts of Trysil (25/30cm), Oppdal (40/40cm), Hemsedal (5/50cm) and Lillehammer (25/25cm). Voss (30/30cm) is scheduled to open on the 1st of December. The largest open ski area is at Spitzingsee (20/50cm) which has 18km of pistes open. We expect to see further snowfalls for resorts in Scandinavia over the weekend, more especially in SW Norway. If Atlantic SW winds develop next week, freezing levels will rise above the tops so make the most of present conditions just in case.

Pyrenees
High pressure has been anchored off Western Europe for two months with just brief periods of unsettled weather for the Pyrenees and other Iberian ranges - it is a weather pattern that favours the Alps, and more especially the eastern Alps. Apart from some light snowfalls from a bitterly cold northerly the next seven days promise yet more of the same - fine and cold over the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees. With temperatures of about -10C at 2500m, at least it will be cold enough for snow making. Weather models again indicate that a snow-bearing Easterly airstream may become established in 9 or 10 days time but confidence is very low - last time they predicted this it did not materialize.

Sierra Nevada
The southern outpost of European skiing is located improbably close to the Mediterranean, just a short distance from Malaga. At over 3500m, the Sierra Nevada is a respectably high mountain range and for now at least, it is home to Europe's most Southern Glacier, a boulder covered lump of ice beneath the towering north face of Mulhacen, (3479m). From a skiing point of view, the area is worth considering in poor Alpine seasons because it tends to do better in years that are poor in the Alps. Friday night and Saturday should see further fresh snowfalls before the weather becomes fine and cold again from Sunday. A similar pattern affecting the Atlas too - if anything the weekend snowfalls will be a little heavier here. As with the Pyrenees, the best hope for significant snow is if the weather models are correct in predicting that an Easterly flow will become established in a week or so.

Middle East
Political instability means that this fascinating winter sports region is mostly overlooked by outsiders. Some of the most consistent skiing in the region is to be found on the 3000m+ mountains of Lebanon. However, neighbouring Israeli skiers don't venture here and as a result much lower Mount Hermon, the only ski resort in Israel, is often full to capacity. Similarly, Iran offers a range of very high altitude snow-sure ski destinations that have incredible potential if only political tensions would subside. The ski season in the Middle East tends to begin a month or so later than in Western Europe but some years it allows skiing well into April - when snow does fall it can be heavy and in Lebanon in particular it often lies several metres deep. The week ahead looks mild and dry for Israel and Lebanon but unsettled, cold and snowy for the ski resorts close to Tehran.

USA
Heavenly Mountain Resort began making snow this week The Lake Tahoe snow sports season is therefore just days away if temperatures continue to cooperate. The West Coast's largest snow-making system can cover 70 percent of Heavenly's trails in machine made snow. Heavenly's opening day, scheduled for this Friday, November 23rd. Looking further ahead, we expect a welcome fresh fall of snow around Tahoe on Tuesday.

In marked contrast to Europe, snow depths in the Rockies are modest and with 46 cm of snow Vail is probably the best of the Colorado resorts - 10-20cm of snow is more typical of others.

A small area of snow is currently sinking across the Eastern Rockies as far as New Mexico and NW Texas bringing the first significant snow of the season to some resorts in these areas - very welcome, but probably not enough to kick start the season anywhere. So far this autumn such snow events have been few and far between and Telluride is the latest major Western US ski area to postpone its opening date this weekend as La Niña winter weather patterns favour the Alps and the Pacific NW and stack against the Rockies, especially the more southern States.

Across the other side of the continent, East Coast snow conditions are steadily improving following widespread Appalachian snowfall last week that extended coastwards to New York City. On the southern shores of the Great Lakes, there was localised heavy Lake Effect snow too.

Canada
Snow has also been falling on the east of Canada this week allowing Tremblant and Mont St-Anne to open in time for their weekend visitors. A low pressure system currently located over the coast of Maine is expected to bring another 15 to 30 cm of snow to the small resorts in Newfoundland, Labrador and Québec on Friday.

Moving west, Banff National Park looks cold and dry until Sunday when it will turn snowy and then stay that way through Monday. Bitterly cold too, with resort temperatures as low as minus 16C. Big White (38/38cm) and Silver Star (25/54cm) were scheduled to open on Saturday but this has been postponed until the 30th November. When you consider that Big White boasts and average of 7m of snow in a season, they plainly have some catching up to do but nobody should panic for at least another month.

The mid-station of Whistler reported 45cm of snow from the last weather system bringing the accumulation there to over 1m and the Glacier is open now too. The weather should stay fairly settled over the weekend - quite mild at first with only light snow flurries about the tops before colder weather and a more significant band of snow arrives on Monday.

World Snow News 20: 14th November

2007-11-14T23:11:00.000-08:00

This weekly editorial is sent to all current members of snow-forecast.com. Even after your membership has expired, you can still view current and archived editorials at http://snow-forecast.blogspot.com/ Our sponsor this week is Direct Travel Insurance - click here to check out their offpiste winter sports cover from only £15

Today’s editorial is a day earlier than usual. I will be perfectly honest about the reason - Early season conditions in Austria are currently so good that Rob, our trusty editor, has decided that he needs a break and can't wait until tomorrow. He was last seen heading out of the door with a snowboard, a very long ruler and a laptop, muttering something about needing to check if our Alpine forecasts have been sufficiently accurate. Given the conditions, I am sure he is not the only one making a flimsy excuse for taking a long weekend. Here is what he wrote before he dashed off to go "calibrating" - it looked like he was in a hurry and I can't help noticing that it's a bit briefer than usual, and what on Earth happened to Scandinavia? -- Nick (today’s editor).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pyrenees
=======
With a blocking high over Western Europe for most of the Autumn, slopes in the Pyrenees, Sierra Nevada and Western Alps have mostly missed out on any early snowfalls. A week ago I mentioned the prospect of things improving about now as an easterly flow develops over the top of a developing Mediterranean low. The weather has more or less cooperated, but unfortunately the flow is more Northeast than East and coming off the continent, drier than expected. We can expect low temperatures and only a dusting of snow over the weekend with the heaviest snow falling instead on the high mountains of Corsica. Early next week, we do expect a northerly flow over the Pyrenees to deliver light snowfalls over a wide area and by Wednesday, falling pressure promises to bring the first substantial snowfall of the season although once again there is some uncertainty because this is highly dependent on high pressure retreating far enough into the Atlantic.

European Alps
==========
There were very impressive snowfalls over Austria last week and accompanying low temperatures mean that most Austrian resorts are now in full winter conditions. It's about -15 degrees C at 3000m today. Langem am Arlberg had 112cm (44inches) of snow over 48hrs with winds reported to have peaked over 100mph (160km/h) here - strong enough to cause some damage. Nearby parts of Germany have also benefited from the snowfalls - Garmisch is open. At long last some of that snow has spread further west into the Swiss and French resorts. Nothing like as much snow has fallen here though things are improving right now. With this storm accompanied by drifting snow and following so quickly after a previous ones, it is difficult to say how much fresh snow actually fell - something like 50cm to 1m seems representative of most of Austria, heaviest in Salzburgerland where there are exceptional reports of 1.5m of snow and snow there is still falling. At Kaprun, it is now possible to ski down to Langwieboden. The Austrian Tirol has generally seen about 50cm of fresh snow too. The problem with so much snow being accompanied by severe gales is that it has caused avalanche problems. The risk was so high that the road to Lech and Zurs was closed earlier in the week - the earliest time in the season that this has happened since 1974. Although it has been widely reported that this storm was a once in 30 years event, few commentators seem to have traced its origins right back to the remains of Hurricane Noel feeding warm and moist air into an arctic depression.

With low pressure slowly crossing central Italy form west to east over the weekend, an easterly wind will maintain low temperatures over the Alps. Snowfalls will slowly clear from the west over the weekend, with the prospect of especially good skiing on all of the Austrian glaciers once visibility lifts. Also very good at and any lower elevation resorts like Schladming that choose to open at the weekend. As the Alps lose the heavy snow, it will turn increasingly wintry over the Apennines of Italy. There is already a good base at many resorts - all of which are little known outside Italy and few visitors to Rome realise that there is such great skiing close at hand.

A lot of our users are no doubt wondering if and when the French and Swiss Alps are going to see a decent fall of snow. Before you contemplate changing your Christmas destination to Austria, don't panic - these areas are not entirely missing out. The good news is that there are moderate snowfalls and low temperatures from about Risoul north - that's pretty much everywhere apart from the Maritime Alps of France and Italy. 10-20cm of snow will be typical for the French and Swiss Alps with snow falling right down into the valleys. Because of the nature of the cloud profile, snowfalls will likely be heaviest at about 2000m with lighter snow on the glaciers. Clouds clearing away on Saturday morning to give a fine weekend with much lighter winds. Turning unsettled and increasingly snowy by the middle of next week.

Eastern Europe
===========
East of Austria, it has also been a cold and snowy week - especially over the Czech Republic. We expect very heavy snow over the Balkans adding to what has already accumulated last week. A brief mild spell over Bulgaria will give way to heavy snow there at the weekend.

Scotland
======
The northerly storm surge that threatened flooding along the North Sea coast last week was accompanied by heavy drifting snow of Eastern Scotland. Milder Westerly winds melted much of it and the slopes at the Lecht were soon back to grass and heather. The nearby Cairngorms were just high enough for some of the snow to survive on higher runs. A return to cool and showery northerlies is currently bringing further snow about the tops. These will die out and it will turn a little warmer again before another snowy northerly sets in on Saturday night with snow to 700m on Sunday and again on Thursday. Hopefully, high pressure will stay to the west but there are tentative signs that the weather pattern that has dominated for two months may break down in a week or so allowing milder SW winds.

North America - East Coast
=====================
It's mild over the Appalachians but a cold northerly will spread down from the Great Lakes during Thursday with heavy rain turning to snow as temperatures plummet 25F. Cold and settled weather to follow will provide a good chance for snow-making to supplement the natural stuff.

North America - West Coast
=====================
A once in 30 years storm in Austria would not impress the folks at Whistler where they are used to this kind of thing and are already boasting a 108cm base - the area opens for skiing in just seven days. A storm on Wednesday night should dump 50cm of snow at the top of the mountain but it is just about mild enough for rain and sleet rather than snow down in the resort. This is typical La Niña weather - coastal BC tends to see the very heaviest snow, but brief mild spells can make it slushy or icy low down at times, especially early season. The further inland you go, the lighter the precipitation but there is no risk of rain. To some extent, the lower temperatures mean that the powder falls with a much higher air to ice ratio, so they get big dumps anyway. In short, wherever you go, BC looks like a very safe bet this season with frequent fresh snowfalls. Some of these will also extend to the more northern resorts of the American Rockies - places where great ski seasons are the norm. This next system should sweep heavy snow across the Tetons of Wyoming on Sunday - that's good news for places like Jackson Hole where they currently have just 30cm of snow and would like to see more before they open on December 1st. A settled spell in prospect across the rest of the Rockies.

Unfortunately all this weather is happening too far north for the popular Tahoe area of California where we expect another mostly dry week. At least we should lose the exceptionally warm temperatures on Monday but this is too late to save much of the snow that fell last weekend. As previously noted, La Niña years tend to have late starts in Northern California, but by mid January snow arrives and afterwards La Niña years are not so different to other years. South California and other Southern states tend not to recover so well at all and the mountains near Los Angeles tend to really struggle.

Best wishes,

Rob ~ The Snow-Forecast.com editorial team

World Snow News 19 - 8th Nov 2007

2007-11-09T04:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the latest roundup of worldwide snow conditions, together with weather prospects for the week ahead from www.snow-forecast.com . This weekly editorial is sent to all active members of the site. If your membership has expired, you can view current and archived editorials at http://snow-forecast.blogspot.com/ or renew your membership online (we'll write soon with details of some exciting new content and member discounts).

In New Zealand, the resort of Broken River has officially closed. This marks the end of the 2007 Southern Ski season and so our editorials will now focus on Northern Hemisphere areas until May 1st 2008.

The Northern Season has got off to an excellent start in three regions - Scandinavia, Austria and Canada. The week ahead will bring heavy snow once again to these areas, but also to several skiing regions that have missed out with cold polar air plunging into central Europe, slightly further West than it has done for some time. South Western Europe and the South Western United States are still dominated by settled conditions associated with a developing La Niña and a negative North Atlantic Oscillation. We should stress once again that these two meteorological engines are running opposite to the way they did last season so we would be surprised if the dire European season was repeated. On the other hand, things look ominously dry and mild for resorts in Southern California and the Southern Rockies - El Niño years are a much better bet for these areas (and for New Zealand too).

In last week’s editorial I mentioned that we needed to see just a modest westward shift of the blocking Atlantic anticyclone to allow cold and snowy air to reach Scotland and the Swiss Alps, and not just Scandinavia, Austria and Eastern Europe as had been the pattern for several weeks. Thankfully, this is exactly what has happened. The present weather pattern is conducive for snowfall across much of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Only the French Alps, Massif Central and the Iberian Peninsula are still missing out and even here there are tentative signs that a cold Easterly flow through the Western Mediterranean will develop in 8 or 9 days bringing snow to the Sierra Nevada and hopefully the eastern Pyrenees and Maritime Alps too.

Scotland
=======
After early snowfalls in September there hasn't been anything to get excited about. As I write, on Thursday afternoon, temperatures across the northern and eastern Highland tops are below zero and 110km/h winds are already bringing blizzard conditions. This wintry blast comes courtesy of the remains of hurricane Noel which provided additional vigour to a deepening Atlantic depression. This storm, soon to be over Scandinavia, is driving severe gales down the North Sea and snow to 500m on the eastern side of Scotland. Although the airstream turns briefly to a milder westerly on the weekend, the fresh snow on the higher slopes of Cairngorm and Glenshee should survive through to Wednesday when another deep depression brings gales and more Highland blizzards as it sinks down the North Sea.

Whereas last season saw a blocking anticyclone over Southern Europe drive exceptionally mild SW air into the British Isles, this year we are already two months into a very different pressure pattern. If we continue to see high pressure between Greenland and the central North Atlantic, prospects for the Scottish season are excellent. So far, so good.

Scandinavia
=========
The weather pattern that is bringing snow to Scotland is doing a similar job in Scandinavia. A deep depression currently sits over the Gulf of Bothnia with all Scandinavian ski resorts in a cold and snowy northerly. There are severe gales, especially over Southern Norway. The next Atlantic depression could well run up against some very cold air over Scandinavia on Tuesday/Wednesday with heavy snow turning to rain at low levels. As the second low moves away, it will leave the area in cold northerlies once again.

European Alps
===========
High pressure over Western Europe over the past two months meant that snow fell heaviest over Austria and neighbouring parts of Switzerland and Italy but with little further west. Conditions in Austria are once again excellent with many resorts able to open early. Lech reported 20cm of fresh snow this morning and 30cm at Solden - low temperatures accompanying the snow mean that power conditions are widespread, especially up on the glaciers in places like Kaprun. All Austrian resorts will see more heavy snow this weekend with snow falling right down to resort level too. The only caveat is that it will be very windy on upper slopes. The glacier resorts of France and Switzerland are already suffering from those high winds but just as predicted last week, they missed out on the recent snowfalls. What skiing is on offer is hard. As the snowy northerly air edges further west, we expect to see very welcome fresh snow - just a dusting this weekend, but a second depression brings the promise of significant snow to France, Switzerland and the Italian Alps in seven days, assuming it tracks down the North Sea as expected.

Eastern Europe
============
The weather pattern that is bringing snow to Austria is also bringing fresh snowfalls to less well known ski areas, places like the High and Low Tatras of Poland and Slovakia as well as the less lofty ranges that encircle the Czech Republic. Freezing levels in the range 500m to 1000m next week will allow snow to accumulate at many of these minor ski resorts, though it would be surprising if any take advantage of this by opening so early in the season. This snowfall will extend far down the Balkans too, heaviest around Serbia and Montenegro on Friday night when more than 25cm of snow is expected to fall. Further afield, heavy snow and low temperatures head for resorts in Bulgaria and Turkey - there is already a dusting at Borovets and a thick cover at Vitosha. It is already quite snowy at most Greek resorts. Helmos near Patras and Parnassos near Athens have a good cover although neither is open and don’t expect to see much more new snow over the next seven days - just a few snow showers. Low temperatures will help preserve the snow that has already fallen.

Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada
======================
High pressure over Western Europe has diverted snow-bearing clouds away from the Pyrenees for some time. There is no immediate prospect that this anticyclone will pull back far enough into the Atlantic for that to change during the next week so expect more clear skies. Looking further ahead, a developing easterly wind and falling air pressure in the Western Mediterranean sea hold the promise of snow for the mountains of Iberia just over a week from now.

North America - East Coast
=====================
Last week’s editorial was already so bloated that I decided not to mention the forecast of the first Lake Effect snow because it falls in places that have very little in the way of downhill sport; just tiny slopes for locals. Towns downwind of Lake Eerie have been affected by localised bands of very heavy snow that has its origins where cold wind blows across icy water - the first such snowfall of the winter. The first real winter storm of the season brought snow to the bigger Appalachian resorts on Tuesday - 20cm of snow fell in just 12 hours in the town of Waterford. The next five or six days should be more settled before pressure falls in the continental interior - expect warm southerly winds and rising freezing levels followed by an abrupt change back to cold and snowy air in a week.

North America - West Coast
======================
Central Europe may be doing well but British Columbia is doing better. Very heavy snowfalls are expected from the Pacific Coast to the continental divide, decreasing in amplitude away from the Pacific - good news for anyone heading to Whistler, Banff or any of the wonderful prospects in between. As stressed in previous editorials, the weather patterns strongly favour this region for the season ahead.

North America - Central
===================
The Canadian Rockies continue to see much more of the La Niña pattern than further south where pressure is high. Even so, one major snowfall a couple of weeks ago means that Breckenridge and Sunday River will both open on Friday, joining Copper Mountain, Keystone, A-Basin and Loveland which are already open. All have about 50cm of cover with no recent changes. The next seven days begin settled, but pressure over the Rockies slowly falls and there should be falling temperatures and widespread light snowfalls. These will be very welcome at places like Jackson Hole where the ski slopes are still green.

Best wishes,

Rob Davies ~ The Snow-Forecast.com editorial team

World Snow News 18: 1st November 2007

2007-11-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest roundup of worldwide snow conditions, together with weather prospects for the week ahead from www.snow-forecast.com brought to you in association with Iglu Ski who are offering two-for-one lift passes if you book a holiday through the thousands available on their website.

The Southern Hemisphere winter season is over - unless you happen to be at Broken River in New Zealand where they continue to enjoy unusually good late spring skiing. Meanwhile, a blocking anticyclone sitting over Western Europe isn't good news for the Alps or Pyrenees, but offers much better prospects for Scandinavia and Eastern Europe as moist Atlantic air gets diverted around the top of it and down the Eastern side. Early season snowfalls in Austria mean that Schladming has opened a month earlier than usual - Austria in particular has got off to a good start this season.

New Zealand

==========

I was at Broken River on the South Island of NZ three months ago - back in what should have been mid-winter. The local area had just received a dump of snow, following what had been a decidedly mediocre season that far. It was so poor in fact that nearby Temple Basin had already abandoned the idea of opening in 2007 at all. When the lifties and clubbies at Broken River enthusiastically assured me that they would stay open as long as long as there was skiing to be had, nobody imagined that could be November or even December. The snow gods must have been listening and decided to call their bluff by delivering several heavy falls at the usual tail end of the season. They are open once again this weekend: if you are in Christchurch - head on up. My only concern is that such a long season on the hill, relentless partying may be taking its toll on the health of the resident lifties - even in July they were already referring to the place as Broken Liver! Fairly mild with good spring snow conditions at the weekend before another cold spell dumps yet more snow on Monday.

European Alps

==========

Last week we mentioned that there was a chance that another depression over Corsica would spread snow further north than the Maritime Alps. In the event, Isola 2000 was about the northern limit of any new snow from this weather system. A weakening Atlantic front did bring a little snowfall to other parts of the Alps - just a few cm to the glaciers. Glacier resorts are mostly open this weekend and other high ski areas like L'espace Killy open on December 1st.

There is no doubt that the unsettled weather pattern in summer and early autumn was much more encouraging for snowfalls than it is right now. We have a huge high pressure anchored close to the UK and set to sit there for at least another week and probably longer. That's too close to the French/Swiss Alps and Pyrenees to let in any snow-bearing Atlantic clouds. Expect a week of settled conditions with strong temperature inversions first thing - cold and foggy in the valleys, sunny on the mountains with hard snow conditions first thing. Weather systems will continue to track off the Atlantic, over Scandinavia and then roll down into Eastern Europe. Normally, we would expect such a weather pattern to quickly break down from the West but there are no signs of this happening. If anything, the blocking anticyclone is expected to drift back offshore allowing the cold northerlies to creep back as far as Austria. Things get interesting in about a week. Tropical Storm Noel, currently 200 or so miles East of Miami, is associated with a large pool of moist tropical air aloft. This is expected to quickly run along the American Atlantic seaboard as a deepening depression which will arc around the top of the blocking anticyclone - passing Newfoundland on Monday and reaching Scandinavia in about a week (check out the interactive Europe-wide map to spot this weather system). The British anticyclone looks like it will guide this moist airmass down through Eastern Europe where it will deliver significant snow. Hopefully, it will pull away further West than forecast so that the snowy air reaches the Swiss and French Alps too - even Scotland may benefit if this happens. Otherwise we don't expect snow to fall west of Austria with heaviest snowfalls in resorts further east than that.

Scandinavia

=========

Significant snowfall is expected for the Mountains of central Norway and Sweden, especially when the remains of Tropical Storm Noel cross the region in a week. Rather variable freezing levels leading to some rain and sleet rather than snow at times, and gales too. Consult the detailed forecasts before heading into the mountains.

Eastern Europe

==========

High pressure anchored over Western Europe is always good news for the mountains of Eastern Europe because cold northerly air preserves the base and delivers regular falls of snow. If the present weather pattern prevails all winter, this would be another one of those seasons when low budget Eastern locations see more snow than the French Alps. That seems highly unlikely, but the week ahead should certainly see further snow for the Tatra, Balkans and more especially Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. A few light flurries reaching the 3000m summits of Lebanon too - the first of the season there and a reminder that winter isn't far away.

North America

==========

The La Nina pattern took a break last week but the next few days will see a return as Pacific weather systems return to SW Canana and NE USA and Alaska. Expect spells of heavy snow at Whistler - just mild enough for rain to snow at the resort elevation. This snow will just about make it as far inland as Banff.

Right now, the weather is very wet and windy around Anchorage in Alaska with strong easterly winds. Heavy snow falling nearby down to near sea level which is great news for skiers. Much colder air from Saturday should help stabilise the snowpack at nearby Alyeska resort - opening November 17th.

In the Lower 48 states the forecast is mostly settled for the week ahead. In Colorado, Copper Mountain and Keystone are set to open on Saturday the 2nd November following recent snow and Mammouth Mountain will open 6 days later. Arapahoe Basin and Loveland have about 50cm of snow including a light covering on Tuesday and both resorts offer limited skiing. Fine and cold this week - perfect for snowmaking

In the Appalachians, the most significant weather event to watch out for is heavy rain as the remains of tropical storm Noel pass by on Saturday. As it moves North, this airmass will run up against some cold air over Canada. Along the boundary, heavy snow will fall - mostly this will be inland of the Appalachians where the tropical airmass will be far to warm for snow to fall and some flooding seems probable. Tremblant is inland enough to see snow rather than rain but even at more coastal resorts heavy rain should turn briefly to snow before it clears away.

World Snow News 17: 25th October 2007

2007-10-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another snow news update from www.snow-forecast.com. Our new calendar is available to purchase online containing 13 months of stunning photos submitted from around the world by our users. Buy one now and get 6 months membership of snow-forecast.com (or a 6 month extension if you're already a member) included in the price! Also, by the time you read our next editorial you will see many new features on the site as a result of our work over the summer.

Turoa on North Island, New Zealand is taking the unusual step of re-opening this weekend. Meanwhile, the small club field of Broken River on South Island is still going strong with yet more fresh snow last week - Broken River has enjoyed a superb late season. In the Northern Hemisphere, there has been new snow across the Austrian Alps and especially the mountains of Eastern Europe. Right now there is localised heavy snow across the Maritime Alps (inland from Nice) - Isola 2000 and Auron have benefited most. It is now late enough in the year to be confident that recent snowfalls in Austria and Southern France have established a base layer that will survive the season above about 1800m.

A few weeks ago we wrote about the ongoing La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific and made some predictions about what that would mean for the North American ski season. Rather than repeat it again, visit http://snow-forecast.blogspot.com/ to read this or any other of our weekly editorials. In summary, La Niña is the name given to an anomalous oceanic current in the Pacific. The closer a mountain range is to La Niña, the more predictable its effect is. This means that the snowfall signal in places like California, British Columbia and Alaska is easy to predict. Once you reach Colorado or the Appalachians, historical correlations are not nearly so obvious and by the time you reach Europe, predictions become very woolly indeed. Even so, La Niña (and El Niño) events have a global impact on weather patterns which means that the effects are felt even in the distant European Alps and Britain, but these places are more profoundly affected by a much more local effect - the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

At present, we have a strong La Niña pattern in the Pacific and this is expected to intensify further. Already it is causing chaos in nearby Southern California as strong dry winds and high temperatures are fanning the flames of fires. Weather models suggest that there is about a 50% chance that the present La Niña pattern will last right through winter 2008. The last comparable La Niña winter was at the beginning of 2000. La Niñas also began in 1970, 1973, 1975, 1988, and 1995 and typically lasted 9 to 12 months. Broadly speaking, La Niñas tend to cause slightly warmer winters than usual in Northern Europe, but often with notable cold snaps early on, such as in 2000. Present sea surface temperature anomalies in the North Atlantic mean the Met Office expects the NAO to be a weekly negative this winter - something that tends to favour cool and settled weather over Western Europe with less Atlantic influence. Taken together, the overall effect should be to produce to pretty ordinary winter over Western Europe - perhaps marginally colder than usual to begin with and warmer towards the end. This is good news because it is in complete contrast to last winter when a combination of strong El Niño and positive NAO conspired to make early winter very warm with warm SW winds driven to Moscow and beyond. Last season was late and poor in the Alps and a non-existent in Scotland - in short, we expect 2008 to be much better.

New Zealand
=========
During the past few days, apart from heli-skiing in the Southern Alps, the only Antipodean snow sports on offer have been at Broken River, but only if you were lucky enough to be a club member. This weekend BR will once again welcome guests, but excellent spring skiing and blue skies means that it is sure to be busy so be sure to book in advance. On North Island, last week Mt Ruapehu resorts of Turoa and Whakapapa closed for the season 6 days early because of yet more windy weather in the forecast. If this wasn't bad enough, a technical error meant that 90% of ski pass holders didn't receive an email to warn them that the resorts had closed and many of these made wasted journeys from as far away as Auckland and Wellington. Presumably in an attempt to pacify skiers, Turoa aims to open again this weekend and the good news is that the forecast is very good. We will continue to update New Zealand prospects for as long as one or more resorts stays open.

Australia and South America
===================
We will update prospects for these regions from May 1st 2008.

European Alps
==========
Last week the weather followed the forecast very closely with 10-20cm of fresh snow for the higher slopes in Austria and heavier falls reported from the mountains of SE Europe. The only thing we didn't foresee was a small depression forming over Corsica that is now delivering quite heavy snow to the Maritime Alps and a dusting further north. This situation commonly occurs during autumn and early winter while the Mediterranean is relatively warm. It is why places like Isola 2000 often have an early season advantage over more famous resorts just a 100km further north, often providing December skiing on 1 or 2m of natural snow. Located close to the budget airline destination of Nice, Isola 2000 (and nearby Auron) are again worth considering if you are planning a pre-Christmas trip. Once the present snow clears away, expect another depression to do a similar thing on Tuesday. Hopefully, the heavier snowfall will extend further north. With pressure expected to build again across the Bay of Biscay and France, the longer range outlook is again for another northerly airstream to bring snow to Austria but not Switzerland.

Eastern Europe
===========
Last week's cold snap is over and much of the snow that fell has melted. Higher freezing levels mean that prospects for new snow are restricted to the upper slopes of more Northern resorts - places like Bansko in Bulgaria should see fresh snow on Sunday night. Remaining dry and mild at resorts in Lebanon and Turkey.

North America
==========
The hot and dry conditions in Southern California are making the headlines. Further North, it has settled down over the Pacific NW too but in reality this week is probably just a brief respite from an inevitably unsettled/stormy La Niña season. Further East in Colorado bright sunshine an low humidity has eaten away some of the snow that fell last week - typically 15cm of snow. The ski season usually begins in about 4 weeks and with about 45cm of snow on upper slopes already, we don't foresee any delays. We will be providing more detailed prospects for North American prospects from November 1st.

Lastly a word from our newsletter sponsors Iglu.com. Check out their website to easily search thousands of packages including 2-4-1 lift pass deals.

Best wishes,

The Snow-Forecast.com editorial team

World Snow News 16 - 18th October 2007

2007-10-19T01:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest roundup of Worldwide snow conditions, together with prospects for the week ahead.

It is still possible to ski at just three resorts in New Zealand. The weather there has improved at last but sadly the season is all but over. The week ahead will bring heavy snowfalls to the mountains of Eastern Europe: places like the Austrian Alps, the Balkans, the Carpathians and even the Pindos Mountains of Greece. La Nina storms continue to clatter into the Pacific NW bringing regular early season snowfalls and the promise of a great season punctuated by stormy days when it is best to stay indoors. The first significant snows of autumn have fallen across the Rockies and the web cams of resorts across Colorado look superb.

New Zealand
=========
New Zealand has been experiencing unusually unsettled and windy spring weather. There has been fresh overnight snow followed by great spring skiing conditions on the big North Island resorts of Turoa and Whakapapa. Tiny, but wonderful Broken River is the only South Island resort that is still open for skiing. Expect all three NZ resorts to be busy over Labor Weekend. The week after looks good too, so it is a real shame that Whakapapa and Turoa will close on Monday 22nd - that's early by their standards. Westerlies won't be quite as strong as they have been over the past few weeks and there will be a good mix of sunny days and snow showers to keep the pistes fresh and at BR, more snow and less wind to end their season. They had another 25cm of powder yesterday and the upper field now boasts a snow base of an astonishing 250cm. With 70cm of snow at the bottom, they could stay open for several more weeks if the demand is there. There was a really big earthquake off Milford Sound last week - luckily too remote to do any damage, but given the condition of the snow-pack, I would be surprised if it didn't trigger a bunch of avalanches in the back country.

Australia
======
Ski resorts have all closed for the season. The snow pack on the high plateaus is still about 70cm deep. If you are heading up there for ski touring over the weekend, bear in mind that it is very windy on top and mild right now (Friday am) but these inclement conditions will soon ease. Expect a fine weekend before unsettled conditions move in again early next week.

South America
===========
We are not aware of any resorts that are still operating in the Andes. Never mind, it has been a great season. At about this time of year, South American skiers used to look forward to the opening of Chacaltaya in Bolivia, the only resort in South America to operate over 'summer', with a season corresponding to North American resorts. Sadly, the glacier at Chacaltaya has melted and the resort has officially closed, bringing an end to skiing at the highest resort in the world. I suppose there is a chance that the frustrated locals from nearby La Paz still venture up there after a heavy fall, so I should mention that the week ahead will be a very snowy one and that we will continue to provide detailed forecasts for the former ski area.

European Alps
==========
With an anticyclone over Western Europe drifting into western Russia, we will again see cold and snowy weather descending down its eastern flank over the next 7 days. Prospects for new snowfall improve as you head east with nothing much expected in France or western Switzerland, but moderate snow for the glaciers of Austria, and heavy snowfalls for the mountains of Eastern and South Eastern Europe as a low pressure forms over the Balkans.

Eastern Europe
===========
The present anticyclone over Britain is moving away but it may soon be replaced by another. If this 'blocking' weather pattern continues long into the winter season - with high pressure over Western Europe, it could be bad news for skiers heading to France, Switzerland and the Pyrennes. In such seasons, snow conditions in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and especially Lebanon tend to be much better. It is far too early to worry about the present ski season in the Alps and the weather models are hinting that there will be heavy snow over the French Alps and Pyrenees in nine or ten days time.

Even at mountains near Athens, we should see the first snow of the season falling on Mt Parnassos on Tuesday as freezing levels there briefly drop below 2000m - just a dusting here, but quite heavy snow at some resorts in Northern Greece and Bulgaria - 25cm of snow expected at Bansko, for example. Much further East, away from the moderating effects of the sea, temperatures in Central Asia are already falling fast. Temperatures at Chimbulak near Alma Ata in Kazakstan are falling below -10C every night with heavy snow forecast early next week before it becomes fine. With Western Europe suffering from a nasty mix of uncertain snow and high prices, the future is surely bright for obscure snowsure places like Chimbulak - if they were more popular, such places could open much earlier in the season than they presently do.

North America
==========
La Nina conditions dominate the weather patterns again with further depressions running off the Pacific into the high mountains of SW Canada and NW USA. Expect this pattern to continue right through the ski season with the central Rockies probably seeing the best of North American conditions because they are less vulnerable than coastal areas to La Nina warm spells, but far north enough to pick up regular storms. The last few days have seen heavy snow falling across the resorts of Colorado and Wyoming, transforming summer into winter - seemingly skipping fall altogether. Wet autumn snow has fallen around Lake Tahoe too but we don't expect it to survive a return to very mild weather next week.

We will be providing more detailed prospects for North American prospects from November 1st.

The Snow-forecast teamW

World Snow News 15: 12th October 2007

2007-10-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest roundup of Worldwide snow conditions with prospects for the week ahead. From now on, the editorial will be a day later, to make it more timely for European and American readers heading away for the weekend.

Late October and late May are the nadirs of the skiing calendar. October is too late for much skiing in the Southern hemisphere resorts and too early for the Northern Hemisphere ones. At Snow-forecast HQ, in Wales, we give up on the idea of snow sports for a while and take advantage of the fact that this prime times of year for surfing. If you are a European skier/snowboarder who does likewise, I am sure that you are planning a weekend at the coast – conditions are already excellent at Europe's Atlantic beaches and the weekend prospects are better still with light or offshore winds and a strong groundswell running.

New Zealand
==========
There is currently little obvious influence of the strengthening La Nina. This October has been a lot like October 2006, and that was an El Nino year.

New Zealand has endured another week of weather that is most politely described as "interesting" (in much the same way as you could politely describe the refereeing decisions of the All Blacks France game as "very interesting"). The weather has been horrendous, with damaging gales and widespread heavy rain. This has brought a mixture of rain and snow to the few ski resorts that remain open. Without a shadow of doubt, the happiest skiers anywhere in the world last week were at Broken River. They received almost 1.5m of snow over just a few days, including 45cm on Tuesday night. Kudos to the mostly Canadian staff and the local clubbies who have kept the facilities open for long enough to enjoy the best conditions of the season. Various heli-ski operations are also still offering access to the abundant white stuff – Alpine Guides of Methven and Mt Hutt Heliski are the closest ones to Broken River, while down in the Southern Lakes region, Harris Mountain, Back Country and Alpine Heliski are still running even though the local ski resorts have closed. Coronet Peak, the resort closest to Queenstown, has announced a huge investment in snow making facilities to help compensate for their relatively low altitude. Weather prospects for the week ahead are dominated by a vigorous depression diving across South Island on Saturday as it deepens. Gale force northerlies ahead of that low are not going to be much fun at Turoa and Whakapapa but on Sunday at least the rain will turn to snow. Cold southerlies behind the low will briefly sweep snow showers to just 500m in the South and East of South Island – good news for Mt Hutt. The remainder of the week looks like it will be dominated by disturbed westerlies, tending South West and eventually weaker South. Just as last week, the weather mix will include new snow but you will need to study the detailed forecasts if you are do make the most of the opportunities when the local weather is fair and the wind is light – Tuesday and Thursday currently look like they will be the best days on Ruapehu.

Australia
==========
Ski resorts are all closed now. However, there is a decent base (1m) and fresh snow across the wide and high plateaus areas that are famous for spring ski touring. Temperatures have fallen more than 10 degrees in the past day, so expect hard snow conditions and thundery snow showers clearing. If you are up in the Snowy Mountains this spring, watch out for for attacking magpies. I was attacked once – it further confirmed my suspicion that everything in Australia is dangerous – during the nesting season, even their humble magpie would kill you if it could! Another weather front will cross the region about Tuesday evening and this will bring further snowfalls about the tops. High pressure to follow and quickly rising freezing levels.

South America
==========
Not a great deal of late season skiing on offer in the Andes. In Argentina, only Las Lenas remains open, while in Chile, Antillanca closes on Sunday. The week ahead brings some rather localised dumps of snow with westerly winds across the South of the region. Aconcagua and neighboring resorts like Los Pentientes should see heavy snow in Sunday. In the far South of Argentina, Cerro Castor tends to enjoy one of the longest seasons of any resort in the Andes There is just 15cm of snow at the base station right now, but there is still 1m or so at the top and they should have cloud and light snow for this weekend – the last of the season which is a shame because there is further snow forecast for the following week.

European Alps
==========
The unseasonal snowfalls of September are a distant memory now. Mild and sunny days last week mean that the snow-line has retreated back up to normal elevations. A low sinking down across Eastern Europe right now means that there is the prospect of light snow on the glaciers of Austria on Friday night. Snowy again on Wednesday night but with fine weather between and to follow. The second of those two snowfalls should extend much further west, even as far as Tignes, and down to an elevation of about 2500m.

North America
==========
The week ahead brings typical La Nina conditions once again – successive depressions running off the Pacific into the high mountains of SW Canada and NW USA. An especially vigorous storm on Thursday looks like bringing widespread snow to fairly low elevations. This kind of weather pattern will ensure that ski resorts in these areas will get off to a very quick start this winter and are probably a much safer bet for a pre-Christmas trip than anywhere else. The only downside to La Nina winters is that it tends to be pretty mild close to the coast with a risk of rain rather than snow at low elevations. At places like Whistler, and Mt Washington on Vancouver Island, you tend to get a mixed bag with deep snow at the top of the mountain but rain at times at the bottom that can make it slushy or icy at times on lower runs. Further inland, it tends to be all snow that falls.

We will be providing more detailed prospects for North American prospects from November 1st.

The Snow-Forecast.com editorial team

World Snow News 14: 4th October 2007

2007-10-04T12:23:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the latest roundup of Worldwide snow conditions with prospects for the week ahead.

The start of October usually marks the end of skiing at most resorts in the Southern Hemisphere. More often than not, the snow cover is pretty patchy by this time of year so ski resorts announce their closing dates well in advance. Otherwise, they risk employing staff too far into the uncertain spring ski season. Sometimes the weather doesn't play the game and resorts have already closed before the best conditions of the season arrive. With huge snowfalls across the mountains of New Zealand in the past few days, many resort managers at places that have closed up already will no doubt be kicking themselves. Happily for skiers, not everywhere closed at the same time.

New Zealand
==========
Last week we gave a pretty accurate forecast for New Zealand. Back then, conditions were looking dire - with a warm NW gale and rain to high elevations. If you hadn't been following the forecasts, the big dump of snow and low temperatures that followed would have been a bit of a shock. Turoa and Whakapapa saw about 20cm of snow but many areas on the South Island did much better - unfortunately most of them had already closed. Notably, Broken River has stayed open long enough to enjoy a 70cm dump over two days - the heaviest snowfall of the season. Mt Hutt saw 10cm or more but the wind has been an ongoing problem there - it is generally much windier to the lee of the Southern Alps than it is around Arthur's Pass. The good news means that the snow remains untracked, the not so good news is that there is already another NW gale blowing from Canterbury north to about Manawatu. Further South, over a metre of snow fell around Fiordland to low levels with 20cm spilling over to the Remarkables. Looking great for fresh tracks at Cardrona too. Presumably, there is also deep new snow up at Treble Cone, so it seems they closed just a few days too early which couldn't have gone down well with the season pass holders. With so few resorts open and so much new snow in the back country people will be tempted to go exploring instead. Be extra vigilant if you do head away from the open resorts because the avalanche risk is very high right now. Looking forward to the week ahead, we have a belt of fairly extreme NW gales ahead of another weather front with pretty disturbed strong Westerlies to follow. With such mobile and unsettled weather, keep a close eye on the local forecasts to take advantage of any weather windows. Once again, there is significant new snow forecast, especially high up, but with so much wind about and very variable freezing levels it will be tricky to be in the right place at the right time. With a strong La Nina developing, expect a short spring and a long warm summer in New Zealand with more easterlies than usual causing distinctive foggy days in Wellington harbour.

Australia
======
Following the mild spell, there is very little skiing on offer and only Thredbo looks set to stay open beyond this weekend. There is still about a metre of spring snow across the high tops, fine for ski touring, but things are patchy lower down and distinctly green at resort levels. It is breezy (60km/h) with weather right now and it will stay that way through Friday. Just the chance of just a few snow flurries around the Snowy Mountains on Saturday as a weak front goes through. After thatclears, the prospect of a few fine days to end the season with cooler temperatures and night frosts before another front crosses around Wednesday evening.

South America
===========
Again, just a handful of resorts remain open with spring skiing conditions widespread, though still with unseasonably deep bases as a result of the snowy winter. A brief cold blast should bring welcome fresh snow, heaviest in the South of the region on Friday and Saturday with excellent cold and sunny conditions to follow. We don't expect significant snowfalls to extend much further north than La Hoya - so staying mostly fine around Santiago

European Alps
==========
Summer and early autumn have been distinctly wintry across the glaciers of the Alps. It's much too early to suggest that this means that a great winter will follow - all too often recent seasons have seen a big blocking high pressure build across Southern Europe delaying the start of the winter season. While there is plenty of snow up on the glaciers right now, a return to seasonal temperatures has melted most of the new snow below about 2500m. Fairly cloudy weather right now should clear away over the next few days and next week should be fine and sunny at the glaciers. Free-air freezing levels gradually falling - from almost 4000m right now to 3000m by the middle of the week as pressure builds from the West. Cold and northerly air streaming around the top of the big European anticyclone will affect Scandinavia at times but it should stay to the east of the Alps, but watch out for a subtle shift westwards that could bring some snow to Austrian glaciers. With a big blocking high over Western Europe and some deepish autumnal lows now generating groundswells in the Atlantic, there are steadily improving conditions at the Atlantic surf beaches - for more details see www-surf-forecast.com.

North America
==========
Over the past few days, our snow alert system has been busy sending warnings of new snow for the Canadian Rockies - the first time this season. With a strong La Nina, we would expect a steady stream of Pacific storms pouring into the Pacific NW. This is just what the forecast for the next 7 days shows with Whistler bearing the full brunt on Saturday night and then again on Tuesday and yet again on Friday. Too mild for snow at resort level this close to the coast and this early in the season, but above mid-station we expect to see the accumulation of another 50cm of fresh snow by Wednesday. As these weather systems push deep into the continent on a NE track, many resorts in the Pacific NW and the northern Rockies will enjoy excellent early season snowfalls.

We will be providing more detail for North American prospects from November 1st, after the Southern Hemisphere season has ended.

The Snow-forecast team

World Snow News 13: 27th September 2007

2007-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest summary of snow conditions around the World, together with prospects for the week ahead.

Sea surface temperatures in the Pacific show that a strengthening La Niña threatens to exert a big influence on global weather patterns over the coming months - with a peak effect expected in January 2008. There are implications for the ski season ahead. La Niña occurs when the tropical seas of the Pacific off the coast of Latin America are anomalously cool, while the waters become warmer towards Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Unlike El Niño, La Niña events tend to be rather brief - lasting only a year. By far the strongest effects are felt in the Pacific Basin, but meteorologists are increasingly confident that "tele-connection" between weather systems can manifest itself around the globe; for example, La Niña has already been implicated in Britain's dismal summer as well as the African floods.

Previous La Niña events have tended to cause very dry conditions in the SW United States. We are not expecting a great ski season in Southern California or Arizona where there is already a chronic drought. In marked contrast, the Pacific NW should see more frequent and heavier snow storms than usual - Washington State tends to do exceptionally well but there are usually better than average snow seasons as far away as Banff and Revelstoke in the East, and Valdez in Alaska to the north. Surprisingly, Whistler hasn't done nearly so well out of recent La Niñas than it did during the ones on the 1970's - due to warmer temperatures leading to more rain rather than more snow at low coastal locations. Neither La Niña or El Niño have been proven to have much effect on snowfall at California's Lake Tahoe, Utah or Colorado apart from perhaps a slower than usual start to the seasons around Tahoe - be cautious if you plan to ski there before January. Across the continent, La Niña tends to bring snowier than normal winters to the higher resorts in Vermont - places like Stowe - but doesn't seem to make much difference elsewhere in the East. In New Zealand, La Niña usually heralds an early spring and this year seem to be no exception. Through intangible tele-connections, it usually has a similar early spring effect in NW Europe, but this region is much more profoundly affected by something much closer - the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). More on the forecast state of the NAO and what that means for Alpine prospects another time.

European Alps
==========
Three days ago our computers automatically dispatched so many 72hr snow alerts, for so many European resorts, that we had to double check in case something had gone badly wrong. As I write this editorial at lunchtime on Thursday, 72 hours later, it is snowing right across the Alps down to 1500m. There are already widespread reports of 10-30cm of fresh snow at the glacier resorts and the webcams show that whiteout conditions are widespread. In short, we have near winter conditions. Unlike the previous cold plunges, this one is further West and so it is the Swiss, French and Italian Alps that will see the lowest temperatures and heaviest snow over the next couple of days. This cold blast extends across the Massif Central and into the Pyrenees and it should briefly be cold enough to bring snowfall to the ~1500m tops of the Jura, Vosges and Black Forest too. Yesterday, the same airmass affected the Scottish Highlands, once again bringing blizzard conditions with 60km/h winds and temperatures of -3C on the summits and widespread frost to rural Britain. Some great conditions for skiers heading up to the Alpine glaciers as the weather clears away in a day or two. After that, freezing levels will return to their seasonal levels of about 3500m. By Wednesday and our brief taste of winter will be over.

New Zealand
==========
Spring passes are about to go on sale for the Mt Ruapehu resorts of Turoa and Whakapapa. Usually, these represent an excellent deal, offering effectively a month of great skiing for not very much money, just as everywhere else down-under is closing. Conditions are typically uncrowded and the weather is usually more settled than in winter - generally offering excellent corn snow with occasional dumps of fresh snow after southerly blasts. The only drawback with this excellent prospect is that Mt Ruapehu is an active volcano and a few days ago it briefly burst into life. A "small" steam eruption covered the upper mountain in ash and moved boulders - one crushing the legs of a climber as it crashed into a mountain hut. Elsewhere on the mountain, a groomer was shocked to see a lahar (river of ice, water and debris) go by. The mountain accommodation was evacuated and the resorts took the precaution of closing for a day (just one day mind you). Apparently, its back to business as usual and skiing on Ruapehu is as safe (or as dangerous) as it was before. I can't blame them for wanting to reopen to soon because there was fresh snow high up and sunny weather too. Skiers have been asked not to venture above the upper boundaries of the resorts for the time being. Make the most of Friday and Saturday because strengthening westerly winds will arrive on Sunday bringing some new snow but a disturbed weather pattern into next week. There was also new snow last Monday/Tuesday at Mt Hutt, Broken Rover and Ohau as well as at number of other resorts that had already closed for the season. The strong westerly airflow will also affect South Island resorts over the next seven days - Saturday looks especially windy - so expect very variable snow conditions. There will be some new snow about, but timing will be everything if you are to make the most of a brief ridge of high pressure mid-week before the westerly gets going once again

Australia
======
The ski season is nearly over in Australia. A thundery cold front is clearing away from the Snowy Mountains on Thursday evening, associated with a deep low just south of Tasmania. Snow showers with snow to low levels follow behind this front but with strong to gale west or northwest winds. Sunday and Monday should see good skiing conditions, if a bit breezy, before it turns warmer on Tuesday. Wednesday should see the weather pattern we have right now pretty much repeating itself. Expect another thundery cold front and a return to cool temperatures and further snow showers.

South America
===========
The Three Valleys resorts of La Parva and El Colorado near Santiago in Chile have now closed for the season but Valle Nevado is still open and they are hosting a stage of the Snowboard FIS Wold Cup Boardercross competition until September 29th. Excellent spring skiing here and at any other resorts that are open - Chillan still reports a 3.8m base on its upper slopes so they won't be closing soon because of a lack of snow. The next seven days there should be fine and breezy everywhere with a dry westerly flow. No new snow is forecast except in the very far South - Cerro Castor is your best bet for fresh tracks - it currently has about a 1m base and will see a lot more cloud and bands of sleet and snow in the days ahead.

World Snow News 10: 6th September 2007

2007-09-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another review of snow conditions with prospects for the next seven days from www.snow-forecast.com.

A few smaller southern resorts have already closed for the season. Tiffindell in South Africa closed on Sept 6th, and in New Zealand Hanmer Springs has also closed this week. Temple Basin has abandoned the 2007 season without even opening. In general though, even smaller and lower Australasian resorts have deep enough bases to pretty much guarantee a few more good weeks. In South America, I guess they will just close when they get bored of the sight of the white stuff. As if to remind us that the Northern winter is nearly upon us, Hintertux in Austria received 55cm of new snow on Thursday and it is still snowing heavily over the Austrian Alps.

New Zealand
=========
Last week we predicted that New Zealand would see a warm NW winds give way
to heavy snowfalls on Tuesday. I'm happy to report that is exactly what happened. Better still, in the days before the storm, our resort forecasts were for 20cm to 30cm of snow at resorts in the Canterbury High country and from the reports, it seems that this was about right too.

Predicting snow depths right is notoriously difficult because the same volume of water can translate into very different volumes of snow according to the humidity and temperature - the ratio can be anything from about 4:1 for wet snow to 30:1 for the cold and dry powder that falls in places like Utah and the wind can be a huge factor too. Getting the depths even roughly right means that you have to be right about the precipitation, temperature and humidity as well. When snow showers are forecast, we don't even try.

Cold and clear air followed chased the clouds North and this has resulted in some great conditions in Canterbury and further south where the snow fell a day or too earlier. In fact, these are probably the best conditions of the season so far.

The week ahead in New Zealand begins fine and cold. A tropical depression has once again formed around New Caledonia but it should stay east of East Cape as it dives SE. Apart from providing fresh snow at Ruapehu on Sunday (with rain on the lower slopes), and the risk of heavy rain (yet again) further north, it will have little effect at other ski fields. Cloud and patchy rain and snow may extend as far south as Canterbury resorts on Monday, but that's all. For resorts further south, staying mostly fine with just a few showers. Watch out for a strengthening NW from Wednesday that
will cover most of the South Island by Friday.

Australia
======
There have been dustings of snow at most Australian resorts over the last week. Spring conditions are widespread with snow firm first thing and becoming heavy by afternoon.

Right now, a strong high over the Tasman is directing moist easterly air over the Australian resorts. It's generally overcast, and there is drizzle on lower slopes and a few snow showers about the top. Pressure is already falling over Western Australia and we expect a depression to form in the Bight and move quickly east with an attendant weather front reaching the Snowy Mountains on Monday. Ahead of the front, freezing levels will remain about the tops and any snow will be confined to peaks but as the front moves away snow showers should penetrate down to about 1600m. High pressure returns mid-week, but will only stay for 2 or 3 days so make the most of the weather window and any fresh snow that falls from this system.

European Alps
==========
Last week, our forecast called for an Atlantic anticyclone to move onto mainland Europe, pushing any cold and snowy air over the Alps away to the east. Luckily for Austria, this has happened a bit slower than we expected and the result has been an extra day or two of snowfall on the glaciers. Air temperatures are about -4 at 3500m which means that snow is falling down to about 2500m. High pressure is already well in control in the UK, France and Switzerland and the snow should clear at last from Austria during the weekend. This presents an ideal opportunity to experience some great winter conditions in September - head east and you will not be disappointed. There is deep fresh snow in Hintertux, Dachstein and Kaprun. High pressure should
dominate the Alps over the next seven days, but watch out for another snowy northerly blast to follow. Meanwhile, if you can't get to the snow, you may be interested to know that a deepening and stationary mid-Atlantic low holds some promise to direct a small but clean long period swell towards the beaches of Western Europe next week - for details visit our sister website surf-forecast.com.

Andes
====
With ski resorts strung along half of the longest mountain chain on the planet, the Andes always presents a difficult prospect for a brief editorial. Today is typically diverse - freezing levels are at 700m in Cerro castor at the South, 4000m at Los Penitentes in the North but the relative altitude of resorts compensates for much of the difference in latitude.

In what continues to be an exceptionally good season for South America, you would be spoilt for choice right now. For example, on Wednesday 150cm of new snow was reported at Cerro Catedral in Argentina and there is the prospect of further snow through the weekend. Mild enough for rain rather than snow to fall at the resort elevation until it turns colder from Sunday. Chapelco received 60cm of fresh snow too and once again there is more snow forecast.

The weather pattern for the week ahead is especially complex as a small depression crosses the region before high pressure builds over the tip of the continent and directs cloudy easterly Atlantic at the Southern Andes for the first time this season with most snowfall expected at places like La Hoya and Las Lenas. Fairly mild temperatures right now will give way to colder air as the low passes and a rare settled period in prospect for resorts in the deep south.

The Snow-Forecast.com editorial team

World Snow News 12: 20th September 2007

2007-09-23T22:48:00.001-07:00

Welcome to another members update of worldwide snow conditions, together
with prospects for the week ahead.

We currently have spring snow conditions across most of the resorts in the
Southern Hemisphere and the number of resorts that have closed for the
season in New Zealand has jumped significantly in the last week. Meanwhile,
the Atlantic weather charts have taken on a distinctly autumnal feel with a
succession of deep lows running through the gap between Iceland and
Scotland. As we forecast a week ago, the icy northerly plunge behind one of
these systems brought maximum temperatures of -3 degrees to the Scottish
summits on Monday, accompanied by 80km/h winds and widespread drifting
snow - it was the first blizzard of the season. There were very similar
winter conditions across Scandinavia too and the cold northerly air briefly
extended far enough South to bring further light snowfalls to the glaciers
of Austria and Switzerland.

New Zealand
=========
The Christchurch Press newspaper recently ran a very gloomy article in which
it claimed that the 2007 ski season had been exceptionally bad. With local
resorts like Olympus opening late and Temple Basin not opening at all, it is
easy to see why the Canterbury regional paper took this line. Even so,
looking across all NZ ski areas, the statistics don't support this
depressing picture and even locally Mt Hutt and Broken River have had a
fair season with a few truly great days. Although 2007 hasn't been anything
like as good as the 2006 El Nino year, you only have to go back to 2005 to
find a season that was worse. Many resorts have had an average season -
Rainbow in particular has had a good one. Last week several more resorts
closed for the season which is normal for the time of year - Mt Lyford,
Hanmer, Temple Basin, Craigieburn, Cheeseman, Porters, Olympus and Dobson
are all closed now - about 25% of resorts. There is still great skiing to be
found elsewhere. North Island resorts of Turoa and Whakapapa are confident
they will stay open until late October and as always, deep snow above the
lifts means that Ruapehu will offer superb back country days for the more
adventurous until Christmas at least.

The next few days sees pressure falling and a complex low pressure area
developing over New Zealand and the nearby Tasman. Initially, the air is
warm - freezing levels are above 2000m and it's cloudy and miserable. As the
low pressure transfers east and deepens it will draw in cool SE air in its
wake. Freezing levels will quickly fall and there should be widespread
fresh snowfalls at most resorts between Monday and Wednesday.

Australia
======
A few days ago I was trying to reconcile the snow report for Thredbo with
the latest web cam image. Whereas the report suggested top to bottom skiing
on a decent base, the camera suggested that resorts level snow was very
patchy - nothing like the 124cm reported. I mention this because the
apparent contradiction is a very common one that is not peculiar to Thredbo.
The reason is that snowmaking has boosted snow depths on the lower pistes
way below the natural levels and it is the snow depth on the piste that is
quoted in the report. As more and more resorts invest in snowmaking, this
creates a statistical headache. The problem is that snowmaking distorts the
record and spoils any historical comparisons that date from before it
existed. Be aware of this possibility if you find yourself concluding that
ski resorts are seeing much more snow than they used to - it may well be
mostly man-made and little consolation if you are an off-piste enthusiast.
Comparing upper snow depths is usually a much more reliable indicator.

Australian resorts are subject to spring conditions right now. The new snow
that fell last week didn't change much and it was soon back to mild weather
and wet heavy snow by afternoons. Right now, they have a real mixed bag of
weather in the Snowy Mountains following a front that is moving away to the
East. Freezing levels are about 2000m (near the summits) but falling. There
are rain, sleet and increasingly snow showers on the westerly breeze. Expect
a clearance in time for the weekend and reasonable skiing. If you stay high
and you may even be lucky enough to find some fresh snow from one of those
passing showers. Becoming milder on Tuesday as pressure builds and a NW wind
becomes established. The next cold front should be much more vigorous than
the recent one when it sweeps in off the Southern Ocean in about a week.
It's a long way off, but there is potential for a reasonable snowfall in
time for next weekend. A few days before it reaches the Ski Fields, that
same cold front may briefly manage a rare dusting of snow at the top of the
remote Stirling Ranges of Western Australia - don't bother taking your
skis - there is scrub almost to the summit, but if you are passing and see
snow, please post any photos of this in our online gallery.

South America
==========
Last week stayed pretty cold across most Andean resorts and that has helped
preserve the snow. With an anticyclone taking up residence over the nearby
Pacific, the week ahead begins cold and slowly warms up. The only
significant snow forecast is for resorts in the far South that are exposed
to fronts embedded the Westerly flow around the bottom of the high pressure.
Nothing too exciting, but I imagine most skiers down there have had such a
great season that they are losing interest now anyway. It's a huge area so
please refer to our detailed forecasts and reports for details.

European Alps
==========
There was more fresh snow on the Swiss and Austrian glaciers last week -
nothing like the 70cm plus falls of the week before, but very welcome just
the same. Typically 10cm in Austria and 2cm in Switzerland. High pressure
will provide a few more sunny days with light winds before cold northerly
air brings the possibility for another light fall of snow in the middle of
the week. Once again Scotland and Scandinavia should also see another cold
and wintry blast. Let's just hope this weather pattern lasts all winter and
breaks the recent pattern of high pressure over the Alps and a mild SW flow
for Northern Europe.

World Snow News 11: 13th September 2007

2007-09-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest update of worldwide snow conditions and prospects for the week ahead.

There are just seven days to go until the equinox but it is too early for Southern Hemisphere skiers to abandon winter sports just yet. The season there is at the Northern equivalent of mid-March, and as everyone knows, spring skiing can be best of all - long sunny days, short lift-lines and great skiing at any resorts that are high enough to hold a good base. It may be officially the end of winter but the Southern Ocean takes a long time to warm up and spring down under is typically punctuated by pulses of cold air from frozen south that can bring fresh falls to relatively low altitudes. Unfortunately, Australian mountains are about 500m too low to ensure reliable skiing for very much longer - indeed two resorts have already closed. Meanwhile, across the Tasman, the high altitude big North Island resorts of Whakapapa and Turoa are usually a safe bet at this time of year and their combined spring passes represent excellent value if you plan on staying more than a few days. When Australian resorts suffer from spring conditions and fast melting snow beneath the high sun, a trip to New Zealand may very well appeal to the residents of Sydney and Melbourne. However, for European skiers, the cold summer in NW Europe offers an alternative with great snow conditions much closer at hand. Several Austrian Glacier resorts are reporting as much as 80cm of fresh snow. With conditions like this on offer even the superb Andean conditions are not all that tempting, let alone the even more distant Antipodean resorts.

Australia
=======
Several resorts had a dusting of snow last week. A front is approaching, accompanied by increasing NW winds, right now, soon gusting to gale or even storm force about the tops. The better news is that as the winds swing Westerly, temperatures will fall and there should be snow showers down to about 1500m tomorrow. Further showers and rather variable freezing levels over the next few days as the weather pattern quickly repeats means that it is a good idea to study the detailed forecasts and snow reports to make the most of conditions because they will be very mixed for a few days. Tending to settle down after that. Unfortunately, any new snow will come too late for Ben Lomond and Selwyn Snowfields which have now closed for the season.

New Zealand
==========
Not for the first time this season, the small resort of Rainbow has seen more new snow than most during the past few days, but even there only 8cm fell on Tuesday. The NW wind that we warned about last time duly closed Mt Hutt and Dobson on Thursday and has affected lifts at Turoa and Whakapapa too. A thundery weather front is presently moving up South Island and will reach north Island around lunchtime Friday. Unfortunately, the air behind it isn't especially cold and so precipitation on the mountains will tend to be rain rather than snow,especially at lower elevations - freezing levels typically not far from 2000m but the problem with aiming high enough to get the fresh snow will be the wind. Fairly moist and showery W or NW winds over the weekend should give way to more settled conditions from early next week - hopefully leading to excellent conditions on the upper slopes of Ruapehu in particular.

South America
===========
In last weeks forecast we mentioned that high pressure would develop over the southern tip of the continent and direct Atlantic easterly winds further North. Right now, that's exactly what we have and cool winds should deliver localized fresh snow to places like Chapelco that are open to the east. This unusual state of affairs will last about three more days before low pressure and prevailing westerlies return to the far South with more settled conditions elsewhere. The resorts near Santiago boast the most impressive snow depths of any ski resorts (around 4m) and this should ensure excellent spring skiing for several more weeks.

European Alps
===========
Austria is certainly the place to be right now following heavy snowfalls on most glaciers last week - over 50cm fell over wide areas. Settled conditions have followed and apart from a brief northerly on Tuesday, the week ahead looks mostly fine too. The Swiss and French summer skiing resorts will enjoy the same fair weather, but these were too far west to have benefited from much of the recent snow. As if to further remind us that winter will soon be here, Norway offers a wild-card prospect for back country skiing in the days ahead as deep and autumnal lows track nearby. On Monday and Tuesday there is every possibility that a cold northerly blast will bring the first snow of autumn across the Scottish Highlands. Even the high Lakeland fells may see a dusting!

For any surfers, prospects for the North Coast of Scotland and the North Sea Coast are really excellent for the time of year - winter swell conditions, but with summer sea temperatures.

World Snow News 9: 30th August 2007

2007-08-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our latest weekly summary of ski conditions with prospects for the next seven days from www.snow-forecast.com

European Alps
==========
A large anticyclone has taken up residence just west of the British Isles leading to the longest settled spell of weather for several months, if rather cloudy and not especially warm. The anticyclone should stay offshore until Sunday allowing moist NW air to continue to stream down its eastern flank towards the Alps. With low pressure over Italy, expect long cloudy periods with heavy and frequent showers, falling as wet snow above about 3500m - that's low enough to reach some of the higher glaciers at places like Zermatt. The week ahead should see the Atlantic anticyclone drifting steadily eastwards bringing increasingly warm and settled conditions to the resorts that are open for summer skiing and eventually warmer conditions for the UK too.

Australia
======
Typical spring conditions can be found at the Australian resorts right now with temperatures the highest they have been for several months. All ski areas have good base depths allowing them to tolerate some snow loss due to the present warm conditions. Right now, temperatures are about 6 degrees above freezing at the summits with 70Km/h NW winds. Temperatures should fall dramatically into Friday with snow showers down to about 1500m. The week ahead should see much lighter winds and a another brief period of much lower temperatures and snow showers on Monday before pressure builds over the continent. Expect very variable snow conditions - ranging from icy to soft and heavy, especially off groomed trails and lower down.

New Zealand
=========
By its usual high standards, New Zealand has not had the best of seasons. It began remarkably cold (-20C in Central Otago), but generally too dry. Mid-season saw prevailing westerly winds bring very variable conditions with only occasional breaks from the cloudy and windy weather at the North Island resorts - some great days to be had, but timing was everything. Further south, where the Southern Alps take the sting out of westerly winds, the weather has been much more settled but there have been relatively few southerlies to freshen up snow conditions and some pretty poor snow
accumulations at some eastern club fields.

Unfortunately, the one really big snow event of the season which arrived a few weeks ago was accompanied by exactly the sequence of weather conditions that leads to an unstable snowpack and a severe avalanche risk. That system, which dropped over 3m of snow on the Main Divide left much of the famous Kiwi back country looking wonderfully inviting but treacherous. Many South Island resorts reported avalanches. It's been the kind of season where the informed travelling skier armed with an excellent value Chill Pass, would probably have had a much better experience than someone with a season pass who stuck to one of the main fields with the possible exception of Rainbow. After a slow start, it has offered some of the best conditions this year - south enough to be mostly cold, north enough to be exposed to the westerly weather.

Many resorts, including Rainbow, have seen fresh snow over the past few days mostly in the range 5-10cm but with Mt Potts reporting 30cm so far. Watch out for a brief spell of very strong and warm NW winds on Friday before it turns much colder. Beyond that, prospects for further snowfalls are excellent. We expect all resorts to see some new snow in the days ahead. In particular, watch out for a deep low forming off the east coast of the lower North Island on Tuesday. This should direct a very snowy SE flow at the eastern ranges from Otago to East Cape before high pressure moves in from the Tasman. If this goes according to plan, many resorts should see ideal conditions in a week’s time.

South America
==========
A good place to be right now is probably the northern high altitude resort of La Parva in Chile (http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/La-Parva.shtml), not far from Santiago. Not only do they have a 4.7m base, the most reported from any ski resort, but they received half a metre of power last weekend and presently have calm and sunny conditions. In the week ahead, we expect to see further heavy snowfalls and falling temperatures for resorts in the south of the Andes with settled conditions continuing further north at least until mid week.

On a site development note, thanks to everyone for their positive input on our new www.tide-forecast.com site for fans of water sports. Thanks also to everyone who submitted such amazing images for our 2008 Snow Forecast Calendar. Watch out on the site for a sneak preview of the some of the finalists.

Best wishes,

The Snow-Forecast.com Team

World Snow News 8: 23rd August 2007

2007-08-24T03:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another roundup of worldwide snow conditions together with prospects for the next seven days from the www.snow-forecast.com team.

New Zealand
=========
Since the last editorial, the weather pattern evolved much as expected with a cool southerly flow delivering mostly light showers - typically just a few cm of fresh snow around Queenstown and Wanaka resorts last weekend with 10cm of fresh snow on the upper slopes of Ruapehu. The snow showers have mostly died away and Turoa and Whakapapa are enjoying the best conditions of the season so far. Late on Sunday and into Monday there is a risk that a tropical low, currently near New Caledonia, will reach North Island. It looks rather likely that Northland will endure yet another spell of very wet easterly winds, once again with a risk of flooding. Right now the southern progress of that low is uncertain and it is certainly possible that it will reach Turoa and Whakapapa on Monday before the SW flow becomes established again. If the tropical air makes it that far, expect a period of NE winds and freezing levels rising to above the top of the lifts with wet snow high up and rain lower down. This risks making things icy as the cold air returns. Hopefully not, but our advice is to make the most of the next 2 or 3 days just in case. Conditions in the rest of NZ have changed very little in the past week and it could stay similar for the next several days too - cool, SW with a few showery bands. Much better news is the threat of a much stronger cold and snowy SW flow developing late in the week. Stay tuned to forecasts because the prospect of a tropical low meeting polar air can cause significant snowy weather to develop suddenly, but only if it tracks much further south than models currently predict.

Australia
======
Much as in New Zealand, snow fell last weekend, but not in sufficient quantity to really change conditions. There is settled weather across all Australian resorts right now and it should stay this way for another five or six days. After that, look forward to the prospect of a disturbed and snowy SW flow to be established by Thursday.

European Alps
==========
Last week the European Alps turned much colder but there was less snowfall about than we expected because the Northerly flow didn't develop as strongly as forecast. With an anticyclone expected to stay off the French coast for the next seven days, the Alps should continue to see rather low temperatures for the time of year. Meanwhile, Britain should at last see some welcome summer sunshine. Around the middle of next week there is a reasonable chance that a deepening low pressure over central Europe will direct a strong NW flow accompanied by heavy snow over the Alpine glaciers, this falling mainly on the northern side of the divide. Strong winds and poor visibility look like being an unwanted side effect, but there could be some wintry conditions as the weather settles down again at the end of the week.

Andes
=====
South America continues to be THE place to be this summer. Pretty much everywhere saw significant new snow over the past week falling on bases that are typically twice as deep as the best on offer in Australia and New Zealand. Expect yet more of the same in the week ahead as a disturbed westerly airstream delivers snow showers and bands of continuous snow. No problem finding fresh snow, but keep a close eye on the forecast to identify the best of any weather windows - they may be quite brief.

Other News

=========

For those of you who live or spend your time by the sea, we have launched a new service specifically aimed at 7 day tidal predictions – currently for over 3600 locations worldwide. Checkout www.tide-forecast.com

Best wishes,

Rob – www.snow-forecast.com

World Snow News 7: 17th August 2007

2007-08-24T03:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another review of snow conditions from around the World, together with prospects for the week ahead from www.snow-forecast.com.

Since tumbling stock markets are making headlines worldwide, I'll kick off this week with a financial diversion that has could benefit snow lovers. For skiers from America, Europe and Japan, pleasant side effects of turmoil in the markets are substantially weakened Australian and Kiwi dollars. They have fallen by about 10-15% against your currencies so if you don't want to wait another 4 or 5 months before the northern season is underway, consider an Antipodean trip to take advantage of more affordable prices and excellent snow conditions! For a long trip, begin at the resorts that tend to close soonest - usually those in Australia or the Southern Lakes of New Zealand, then head north through New Zealand as the season advances, taking in the unique atmosphere of the Club Fields (purchase an excellent value Chill pass and explore many different resorts). Hopefully you can end with superb uncrowded skiing on Mt. Ruapehu in late October and November, fully 3 months away.

Conditions in New Zealand are on the up: About a week ago, a warm NW gale briefly did serious damage to the snow cover of many South Island resorts. First, the 120kph wind blew exposed slopes bare and then it rained heavily to about 1700m, soaking the remaining base with water. The rain turned to wet snow that froze solid below mid stations and got loaded with avalanche-prone unbonded new snow high up. New snow varied from about 30cm at most ski fields to 3m of fresh snow at the Main Divide - Treble Cone had over 50cm and off-piste there was a high risk of avalanches. On Monday, much colder air brought slow moving snow showers across much of the Southern Alps and even to inland parts of the Canterbury Plains. Monday's snow was drier and powdery but very variable in distribution with the heaviest falls at Broken River and Craigieburn (15 cm) but relatively little for nearby Porters. Excellent conditions followed the snow at the club fields, but with a high risk of avalanches.

The same snow showers moved away to the north and delivered dry snow to Mt Lyford and Rainbow - both enjoying the best conditions of the season so far. On Thursday night another low moved in off the Tasman and brought about 10cm of fresh snow to many resorts but it mostly missed the Southern Lakes. The great news is that Mt Olympus will be opening on Saturday but the not so good news is that Temple Basin may not open this season at all - a great shame. The week ahead looks like it will be dominated by a cool SW airstream around a Tasman high, with periods of snow showers, more especially between now and Wednesday. There will be good snow-making conditions throughout.

Australia
=======
Last week for Australia saw light snowfalls at most ski resorts. Mount Baw Baw fared better than most with 16cm of snow falling over the last week. In general, the theme was for cold nights providing good snow-making conditions and hard pistes first thing that soon softened during the morning. The week ended on a more showery note and on Thursday night, Thredbo saw 5cm of fresh snow with a perfect sunny day to follow. As the thundery trough clears into the Tasman, expect a couple of days of low temperatures and snow showers, with the snow level lowering to about 1300m before the showers die away on Sunday afternoon. Pressure will then slowly build across the Alpine region with a settled week in prospect.

South America
===========
The biggest snow event of last week was a deep depression that hit the Andes much as predicted. As expected, it turned especially cold and snowy across the southern Andes. Snow coated the fields of Chile's normally temperate central valley wine and farm region for the first time in half a century on Wednesday, causing officials to declare an emergency to avoid traffic accidents. There were even reports of 4 hours of snow falling in Santiago City which is fairly unusual because of the low altitude; about 500m. Even so, it was nothing like as bad as the snowstorm of 1970 that collapsed roofs across the city. Nearby Chilean resorts, already enjoying an exceptional ski season saw further heavy snow and La Parva is currently reporting an accumulation of well over 4m. Chile is enduring its coldest winter in 30 years.

Over the border in Argentina, Cerro Catedral received the most snow with over 50cm falling on Monday and Tuesday, while 30cm of new snow enhanced the cover at Chapelco. Not for the first time this season, Las Lenas missed out altogether. Right now the Andes are enjoying the tail end of a settled spell but the week ahead promises to be an unsettled one - once again with heavy snow. Initially, strong, gusty and reasonably mild NW winds will develop ahead of an approaching Pacific depression. A series of fronts in a disturbed westerly air flow will cross the region between Monday and Wednesday, each one introducing colder weather as the wind turns more SW. A bitterly cold and potentially very snowy southerly blast should arrive late in the week, hopefully clearing away by next weekend to provide perfect skiing conditions once again.

European Alps
===========
As forecast, last week tended warm and wet with rain closing many glaciers across Europe. The week ahead will be very different. High pressure developing off SW Ireland will direct a northerly airflow over the Alps so much lower temperatures are expected. By mid-week the freezing level over the Austrian Alps will fall well below 3000m. The further away you get from the centre of the anticyclone, the more chance you have of seeing snow showers but even the glacier at Tignes in the French Alps should at least see a dusting of new snow. Eventually the high pressure should topple onto the continent making for a fine and settled end to the week with some great high altitude skiing to be found for those who are lucky enough to be there.

Have a good week,

Rob - www.snow-forecast.com

World Snow News 6: 10th August 2007

2007-08-24T03:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the latest review of international snow conditions together with the prospects for the week ahead. Today is something of a landmark for Snow-Forecast.com as we add our 2000th ski resort to the site. Those of you who have used our services since the start will recall that until 4 years ago, we didn't actually provide resort-specific forecasts and instead all our content was in the form of weather maps which some people found hard to interpret. Thanks to everyone who has sent in details of missing resorts - please keep this info coming - you can claim a free month of full site membership if your e-mail leads to us adding a new resort. China is one place where we have big gaps in our coverage - we know they are building ski resorts all over the country, but getting information is proving tricky. Any Chinese users out there?

The second week of August is usually the optimum time of year for many Southern Hemisphere ski fields. Most resorts in Australia and New Zealand are at a modest altitude and they are closer to the Equator than many northern resorts which means that the spring thaw tends to arrive just before the spring equinox compared with Northern Hemisphere resorts where snow tends to continue to accumulate into early April. For less snow-sure Antipodean resorts, a typical winter season would normally end in about 4 weeks time but since some New Zealand club fields have barely got going, let's hope that September is better than average. Turoa and Whakapapa are obvious exceptions and conditions there should continue to improve for another 6 or 8 weeks - often at their best just as most Kiwi ski areas are closing for the season.

New Zealand
==========
A low pressure system crossed Aotearoa through early last week and a few resorts benefited much more than most. The big winners were Stratford, Rainbow and Ruapehu resorts with up to 50cm of fresh snow making for classic mid-week conditions once the clouds lifted. I was lucky enough to be at Rainbow when the lifts opened on Tuesday at noon following a morning of avalanche work. Everyone waited patiently and the afternoon was one to remember. I don't think I can ever recall so few people tracking our so much off-piste terrain in such little time - I guess we were all a bit frustrated by the long wait and had 3 hrs of studying the steeps to figure out what lines looked best. Located near the top of the South Island, Rainbow benefits from localised snowfalls that miss other fields. Although on this occasion Statford, on the slopes of Taranaki, caught the same line of heavy and thundery snow showers. Ski seasons at Rainbow tend to have little correlation with other South Island areas and some seasons this can really work in its favour with much more snow at Rainbow than at more well known resorts further south.

Last week, the same disturbed westerly flow also brought a welcome dump to Temple Basin at the the head of Arthurs Pass too, but not much snow got over the main divide so there were only modest falls at other resorts, say 5-15 cm. The predicted Southerly flick that followed the low was less snowy than we had hoped with just light falls at most South Island resort which leaves a couple of smaller Canterbury club fields still struggling to open. Meanwhile, as is so often the case, Ruapehu fared rather better from the Southerly and the upper field depths are fast approaching 2m - the best in NZ, as usual. Southern Lakes areas have decent bases but mostly just had light snow last week. Right now, all NZ resorts are affected by very strong Westerly winds ahead of another front. Weather-wise, it is a real mixed bag now with 2000m freezing levels and very blustery showers of rain and snow at resort elevations. The good news is that as the front moves through tomorrow night, temperatures will fall and many resorts can expect a significant snowfall at altitude. This will be followed by further snow to low levels in Otago and Southland as the front clears away and winds swing light Southerly on Sunday. The present westerly airstream is packing a lot of moisture and although it is presently quite mild, favoured locations along the main divide, especially from Arthur's Pass south, should see some very heavy snowfalls - obvious candidates are Temple Basin, Ohau and Treble Cone with lesser falls east of these and huge snowfalls for the higher mountains from about Franz to Milford. Early next week, cooler and settled conditions should make for great conditions before another NW builds from Wednesday onwards ahead of another front.

Australia
======
For once, it's not such a great forecast for Australian resorts. In a season that has been increasingly dominated by a mobile westerly flow, it should come as no surprise that the weather arriving in New Zealand this weekend left Australian shores a day ago. Just as strong WNW winds and mild temperatures are affecting NZ resorts right, the same has been happening in places like Thredbo for two or three days and at most Australian resorts, the gales are only just abating. Where temperatures stayed cold (above about 2000m), the 120km/h winds briefly moved the snow about and resulted in deep pockets of fresh stuff. At lower elevations, and let's be honest, that's almost everywhere, something of a thaw took place instead. Piste conditions have remained ok even if lift access has been limited. On Friday, freezing levels were briefly way above the tops. Colder air will sweep in on Friday Night and lighter west or SW winds should bring light snow showers tomorrow and Sunday and a fair weather window on Monday before the wind again strengthens from the NW. It should not be nearly as strong or as mild as last week. At this stage, there is just the hint of a frontal trough bringing another period of snow before next weekend, more especially to the high country of Tasmania and Victoria. Fingers crossed.

South America
===========
It has been another great week for skiing across the resorts of Chile and Argentina. Upper mountain depths are generally 2 or 3m and last week saw widespread fresh snow. The heaviest snow fell at Cerro Catedral which has been transformed into a powder paradise. Only Chapelco missed out altogether on the last weather system but a good base makes for excellent riding and skiing if you enjoy fast pistes. The week ahead shows a significant storm system hitting the Andes on Monday with 15-40cm of snow falling at most resorts, decreasing with distance from the main divide. Very low temperatures in the strong Southerly airstream that follows the storm will be accompanied by a severe wind chill. Mid-week will see the wind fall light as high pressure moves in off the Pacific providing what should be the best conditions of the season so far. These settled conditions are expected to last into next weekend.

European Alps
==========
It has been an unsettled summer in Western Europe and last week once again saw fresh snow falling across the glaciers of the Swiss and French Alps but the poor weather conditions have only allowed for limited access. Freezing levels are typically at about 3000m right now and snow is still falling, but slowly freezing levels will climb to 4000m over the next six days - high enough for rain rather than snow to fall by Thursday. Often cloudy throughout the forecast period, but with generally light winds, so perhaps not the best week of the summer to be there.

Until next week...

The Snow-Forecast.com editorial team

World Snow News 5: 3rd August 2007

2007-08-24T03:53:00.000-07:00

4Welcome to the latest review of Global snow conditions, together with weather prospects for the next 7 days from the team at www.snow-forecast.com.

El Nino and La Nina conditions have a profound effect on the weather patterns around the Pacific. Last season was dominated by a strong El Nino event which gave Australia a poor season compared to New Zealand where a prevailing southerly brought regular dumps of snow right up until January. This year, the sudden collapse of El Nino looked very likely to lead to only a brief spell of neutral conditions before a moderate La Nina event took over, but lately it seems more likely that the present neutral conditions may hold out for the rest of the winter. August is regarded as peak season for many Southern ski resorts with a notable exception of Turoa and Whakapapa of the North Island of New Zealand where high altitude and a rocky volcanic setting mean that the best conditions are usually in late September or early October (and often lasting into November and even beyond).

New Zealand
==========
Conditions in New Zealand have improved but they are still a bit patchy. Broadly speaking, the main resorts at either end of the country are in reasonable shape, but around the middle in places like the Canterbury club fields where there is no snowmaking, things are not going according to plan. Although most resorts are now at least partially open, typical 20-40cm natural snow depths are not enough for much off-piste action. While it is not the worst season on record, there have only been three or four worse starts in the past 25 years - indeed, just calling it a bad start is being optimistic - at small club fields the season would normally be two-thirds over by now but this year it has begun very late because early winter was very cold, but dry. Last week, as we expected, most places saw only modest snowfalls, heaviest around Otago - say 10-20cm. Thankfully, this was good enough to allow Mt. Dobson to open at last and to make the piste conditions excellent at most resorts, especially at places like Porters and Cardrona where new snow fell on decent base. The next 7 days promise to bring a low pressure system across South Island and unlike previous storms, this one should hang off the East Coast for long enough to direct a southerly at the Canterbury fields that desperately need it before a high moves off the Tasman mid-week. All resorts with snowmaking facilities will benefit from a week of lower temperatures, but at this stage it does not look as if the low pressure system will drop a great deal of snow - enough to make things excellent on piste but probably still insufficient to allow for extensive back-country skiing and boarding apart from places like Ohau and Treble Cone where there was already a reasonable off-piste base covering rocks before the fresh snow fell. With just a little luck, we should see enough fresh snow for poor Mt Olympus to open at last and as soon as it does, I hope to be there because it really is a great ski area once the rocks are covered.

Australia
=======
Over the Tasman, snow conditions have held up well and most resorts have had a dusting of new snow, with a big dump for Tasmania so that Mt Lomond which was bare just a few weeks ago was the pick of the bunch last week with 40cm of fresh snow. In the last editorial I mentioned a worrying prospect of a warm nor'wester mid-week. In the event it was no worse than freezing levels climbing up to about 2100m so it has made for some heavy afternoon skiing but has not done much damage to the cover. Most resorts should see fresh snowfall from the present showery SW airstream before high pressure builds in around Sunday or Monday with a mostly settled week to follow. Excellent conditions early in the week, but freezing levels rising each day so that things could get quite crusty off piste by late in the week if a freeze-thaw pattern gets established as we expect.

Andes
=====
The great 2007 season provided another fine week at resorts across South America with several resorts in Chile now reporting more than 3m of cover and modest fresh snowfalls in most resorts last week. The prospects are for a couple of dry days before an unsettled Westerly airstream develops, with the promise of widespread and heavy snowfalls next week - more especially further south with heavy falls on Monday and again on Wednesday/Thursday. Excellent conditions between and after, but with cold and gusty winds. Once again, the Andes offer the best worldwide prospects for skiing this week.

European Alps
==========
The Mölltal glacier in Austria has now reopened for summer skiing. Tignes is again closed due to strong winds today (Thursday) leaving Les Deux Alpes as the only open French summer skiing resort open. In Switzerland, Saas Fe and Zermatt had some new snow earlier in the week and are open again while the glaciers in Austria are open but tend to be a bit too soft and are losing a bit of snow depth. The week ahead starts ok, but then continues the distinctly unsettled theme with a growing risk of thunderstorms right across the Alps. It's not a great prospect and this week would be a very good one to abandon the snow and head for the Atlantic Coast instead - a distinctly autumnal low storm in the North Atlantic is currently directing a big swell towards the coasts of Northern Spain and SW France.

South Africa
==========
I would be very surprised if either Morocco or South Africa ever hosts the Winter Olympics, but surprisingly the mountains at either end of the vast continent offer limited skiing. Surfers from Durban head up to Tiffindell, which is 300km away as the crow flies and a lot further by winding road. That may seem like a bit of hike for a weekend, but it compares favourably with the closest "proper" ski resort - Faraya in Lebanon is 7000km away according to our nearest resort listing. Tiffindell lies just below 3000m Ben McDuie and gets by with a mix of natural and carefully managed artificial snow - the cold nights are ideal for the machines and right now they have a good cover despite the warm sun. Some much colder days with a few snow showers in prospect for the week ahead.

All the resorts referred to above and many more can be checked out at www.snow-forecast.com where for each location we provide forecasts, webcams and reports (when available), visitor reviews and much more.

2008 CALENDAR APPEAL
================
We have had an excellent response to our request for photos for our new calendar and some truly stunning shots from our users. We are still looking for a few more to add to our shortlist – particularly images of snow in unusual places (in previous years some of the favourites were snow in Athens and Egypt). Any shots that make it into the 2008 calendar will be rewarded with membership of the site and a selection of snow-forecast merchandise. Please send any shots for consideration to help@snow-forecast.com.

Lastly, our friends at Iglu have prepared some exclusive offers for subscribers of our weekly updates for Christmas and New Year ski breaks:

2-4-1 Lift Passes in Jan & Feb
http://www.igluski.com/offerPage.cfm?offerpageid=62&vardepStation=LGW&boardType=CA&sortOrder=price&referrersiteID=393

£1 Lift Passes at Christmas
http://www.igluski.com/offerPage.cfm?offerpageid=11&referrersiteID=393

Early booking discounts - Save up to £50 per person
http://www.igluski.com/offerPage.cfm?offerpageid=21&referrersiteID=393

Best wishes,

Rob
www.snow-forecast.com

World Snow News 4: 26th July 2007

2007-07-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another roundup of global snow conditions and prospects for the next seven days from www.snow-forecast.com.

July is almost over, and any Southern Hemisphere resorts that do not yet have a decent base get anxious about now. This year, all resorts in Australia and South America are in the clear with deep bases that will last through the season, but a few resorts in New Zealand still need more snow before they can open and many other resorts have limited or zero off-piste because the cover is too thin. Of course, if you are an off piste junkie there are always options if you don't mind putting in some leg-work - from the upper slopes of Ruapehu to Mt Brewster above Haast Pass and at several great Heli-operations in between, even in a mediocre season, New Zealand has fine snow beyond the confines of the resorts.

European Alps

===========

This week, for a change, I'll start with the European Alps where a mixed week of weather included a cold snap that caused fatalities on Mt. Blanc. While much of Europe suffers record heat, it is easy to forget that the higher peaks of The Alps (typically 1000m above the glaciers) are very rarely below the freezing level and this makes them subject to summer blizzards.

In France Tignes and Les Deux Alpes are skiing really well with sunshine and low summer temperatures. It is a similar story in Switzerland on the glaciers at Saas Fee and Zermatt. Cervinia in Italy is holding up well while the conditions at Val Senales are not great. The week ahead looks like it will bring scattered rain and snow showers at first, then mostly fine days and freezing levels between 3500 and 4000m with light to moderate westerly breezes- cold enough for the snow to freeze at night but with heavy conditions by late-morning. Several glacier resorts have closed for the summer - most recently, the summer ski season on the Pissaillas Glacier at Val d'Isere ended on Saturday 21st July and this is the last week of summer skiing at Blackcomb glacier in Whistler.

Apart from the Mt Blanc tragedy, The Alps were in the news for another reason last week. Pretty much everyone knows that last winter (06/07) was a poor one in Europe, but was it really as bad as all that? Nobody can dispute that around Christmas and New Year, snow conditions were desperate. I images of grassy slopes and idle snow cannons made the news around the globe, as if they provided certain evidence of Global Warming. However, it wasn't long before the snow arrived and although it was rarely deep at low altitudes, higher resorts did pretty well and snow depths above 2000m were average or better than average. Apart from a late start, the season was typical of the prevailing North Atlantic Oscillation that brought a lot of warm and moist air off the Atlantic. If you are in any doubt, just take a look at the record of snow-depths at a resort like Tignes (http://www.snow-forecast.com/c/resorts/Tignes/history) over the past 15 years and the NAO pattern is obvious.

Lately, several tour operators have been blaming the media for sensationalist and inaccurate reporting. Nothing new there, you may think, but what’s unusual is that most of the anger is directed towards the BBC who have been accused of running images of green slopes in news reports long after they were covered in snow and of course this probably led to cancellations and falling bookings even after snow had fallen.

For our readers in the Northern Hemisphere, we have two great offers if you are thinking of booking a holiday over the coming Christmas or New Year. Thanks to our friends at Iglu:

Save £50 pp on a huge range of Christmas holidays in Europe & USA (click here for info.)

Free Ski & Boot Hire + Save £50 pp New Year Chalets in France & Switzerland (click here for info.)

Of course most snow reports tend to be biased the other way - resort managers are prone to a bit of positive spin when it comes to reporting and who can blame them. Thankfully, the advent of webcams has made it difficult to stray too far from reality. As far as possible, we try and use reports from the Ski Club of Great Britain because these are independent. However, they only cover about 300 resorts worldwide and our website covers 1920 at the last count, so we rely greatly on users who provide snow reports in return for free membership. We also allow resort managers to update information on our site to provide them with a chance to say don't believe the forecast, we are above the cloud! Indeed, the reason we provide links to every resort page that we can find is so that users can quickly check what is really happening - predicting mountain weather is incredibly difficult and it can vary enormously over short distances and small changes in altitude.

Andes

=====

In a word – stunning! Last weeks’ forecast seems to have been fairly accurate, with widespread and heavy new snow falling last weekend and into the week, followed by a several fine days. Las Lenas is much improved, and Portillo just gets better and better with 70cm of fresh snow both here and at Chapa Verde. An amazing weekend to be heading to the Three Valleys in ChileColorado (170/295cm) providing excellent riding conditions. With a sunny weekend in prospect everywhere, the next heavy snowfall looks set to arrive early next week, and more especially further south. This should clear away mid-week as another anticyclone edges in off the Pacific. Sadly the unusually cold winter elsewhere in South America has been responsible for many deaths. In high altitude Peruvian villages, temperatures have fallen to -20C and many adults and children have died as a result of cold, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Even in nearby rain forests, temperatures have fallen below 10C. thanks to the amount of snow falling over the last week. La Parva (240/290cm) is reporting 134cm of snow arriving in the last seven days alone. The sun is now shining and this will continue into the weekend. 70cm of fresh snow has fallen at El

New Zealand

=========

The past week brought a change in the weather with a fresh westerly wind blowing away the cold and frosty air from Inland Otago and for the first week this winter, nowhere seems to have been subjected to a Biblical deluge (apologies to any Kiwis who left for Britain last week - bad call…). The weather progressed much as forecast with bits and pieces of fresh snow about, but locals are still waiting for a big dump to kick-start the season at several club fields. It's not that these places don't have snow, they just don't have enough. The greywacke rock that erodes down to make the characteristic gullies that the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps are famous for really need about a metre of snow to cover the rocks. Places like Mt Olympus have half this depth and are still waiting, however closer to the divide, westerly winds have brought enough snow to greatly improve the upper slopes at Temple Basin and also enough to at least freshen up the pistes at Rainbow, Mt Lyford.

The Southern Lakes have typically benefited from 10-15cm of fresh wind blown snow and although this isn't enough to open up the off-piste options, it is very welcome - not least because it arrived much earlier than we had expected in last Thursday's forecast. The weather models didn't predict very much of the NW moisture getting over the Southern Alps and into central Otago which makes a change because they often predict more snow than actually falls by not modelling the rain shadow effect well enough. Let's hope that continues to be the case because for the week ahead, the same models suggest modest falls - a few centimetres now and again, but no big dumps. Mount Dobson is another casualty of the dry winter weather while at nearby Fox Peak (open at weekends) they suggest you only use old skis. Being located even further east of the Main Divide than places like Cardrona, these resorts are very sheltered from Westerly moisture. Hopefully a brief spell of NE wind forecast for Monday will deliver much needed snow.

Ruapehu managed about 25cm out of last weekend's depression, the best in NZ and it already had the deepest base too. However, the freezing level has drifted high enough at times to make the upper pistes icy and the lower runs soft whilst off piste is best avoided with a dangerous mix of ice and exposed rocks. Prospects are for a fairly similar week ahead and while there will be fresh snow about, and some sun too. Winds will be from a mild NW direction and freezing levels will be mostly above 2000m. Timing will be everything if you want to catch fresh snow and fine weather on the mountain. Meanwhile, over on Taranaki, the same system also brought snow last Friday but the warm westerlies that followed it have melted most of the new snow. There is not enough depth to open for skiing at Manganui and I’m sorry to say that the week ahead holds little grounds for optimism with yet more rain at resort level and no prospect of the kind of SW flow that gets things moving in this corner of NZ.

Australia

=======

Australia was once again was the right side of the Tasman to be with some superb conditions on offer last week. The next few days look like delivering more of the same. High freezing levels right now (Thursday night) are close to the tops and a front crossing the area is giving a mix of rain and sleet with snow above about 2000m and westerly gales on the summits. Temperatures however are falling, and before the front clears away, we should see widespread new snow at most levels over the next couple of days though staying breezy. Apart from a risk of a rather warm NW airstream doing some damage to snow cover mid-week, it returns to business as usual with a snowy end to the week expected.

Finally, thanks to those users of snow-forecast.com for their positive feedback on our weekly editorials. This has prompted us to publish them and maintain an archive at http://snow-forecast.blogspot.com/

Best wishes,

Rob

www.snow-forecast.com team

World Snow News 3: 19th July 2007

2007-07-26T04:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another www.snow-forecast.com weekly weather round up.

Australia
======
Last week's forecast for Australia worked out almost exactly as planned with new snow for all resorts and a very welcome 30cm dump at Ben Lomond in Tasmania to kick-start the season there. That same system typically dumped 20cm of snow on the mainland mountains and accompanying low temperatures have resulted in widespread reports of powder - which sounds wonderful. I can't help being a bit sceptical about the idea of powder in Australia and I really need to hear it from a visiting Canadian before I believe it! Of course this is all sour grapes really because while you lot were having a great time making fresh tracks in OZ, over on this side of the Tasman we were missing out altogether and the only powder in Kiwi resorts last week came out of a snow cannon. Meanwhile the endless frost in central Otago basins notched up another 7 days - the frost must be nearly thick enough to ski on by now…

It looks like the next week will see things settling down over Australia with high pressure dominating the forecast period. A small and intense low may brush Tasmania mid-week, but at this stage it does not look like its attendant fronts will travel far north of Melbourne but there is certainly a fair chance that the forecast track will shift enough to bring another snowy spell - so watch the forecast carefully as it gets closer. Check out the dynamic map animation at http://www.snow-forecast.com/maps/aus_dynamical.shtml

New Zealand
=========
For New Zealand, last week I had high hopes that with a cold high over the South Island and warm moist air to the North and East, some place in eastern New Zealand would get a decent fall of snow from the moist Easterly air
squeezed between and the charts suggested the top of South Island would be the favored spot. In the event, the mixing zone was further North than expected and it brought severe flooding to Hawkes Bay instead with only
light snow to places like the Kaikouras and presumably heavy snowfall to the tops of the Ruhaines and Kawekas but with no resorts there to take advantage. Only light snow spilled over the ranges as far as Turoa.

The good news is that the same system that brought snow to Australia has since crossed the Tasman and is quickly approaching New Zealand, so ironically the long-range part of last weeks forecast for NZ has proved more accurate than the wayward middle bit. The not so good news is that attendant snowfall quantities from this system look like they will be generally less than they were in Australia, especially for the Southern Lakes area where it has been cold and settled for more than 2 weeks. Places like Cardrona are very skilled at maintaining perfect piste and park conditions, but by the end of next week the off-piste in particular is going to need new snow quite badly.

Instead, the heaviest snow out of the current system will should be around Taranaki, Ruapehu, Nelson, Marlbrough and Caneterbury with the heaviest snowfalls for the upper slopes of Taranaki and higher tops of Kahurangi
today. It looks like some very cold southerly winds will dig under this low on Saturday with a risk snow to low levels right along the east coast of both Islands, clearing away North on Monday. A westerly airstream should
establish itself over most of New Zealand on Tuesday with mostly fine weather and rising freezing levels. There is just a chance that the mid-week low forecast for Tasmania will pass close enough to Southland to deliver
snow to Southern Ski fields late in the week and it may also be sufficient to send an attendant cold flick up the East Coast around the weekend. Fingers crossed.

Andes
====
No matter how good it seems in Australia right now, South America is undeniably the place to be this season with 2m+ bases at several resorts. Last week saw plenty of fresh snow at resorts in Chile but in Argentina, only Chapelco benefited, with a relatively modest 7cm fall there. Most surprisingly, it is the giant and normally snow sure resort of Las-Lenas that has missed out on the big dumps so far - not that the skiing there is at all bad - it's just not the best of the bunch right now because this year the weather fronts have been partially blocked by the mountains.

From a meteorological point of view, the Andes situation is roughly equivalent to New Zealand with similar weather patterns leading to snowy winters. The main thing to look for is a blocking high pressure sitting off the
west coast. This directs a cold and snowy SW airstream around the bottom and as the high topples in from the west, a settled spell of weather makes for perfect skiing and riding conditions. No surprise that this is exactly
what is in store for the next week - cold and snowy until Wednesday, then sunny for the back half of the week. Perfect.

With all this fresh snow forecast, conditions on the high glaciers of Europe seem academic and after a very warm week last week as forecast, things are not nearly as enticing as they were earlier in summer when the weather
thought it was still winter. This week should see the remaining storms clearing and should cool down enough for reasonable early morning riding on the Austrian glaciers in particular, otherwise too slushy.

Until next week,

Rob

www.snow-forecast.com

World Snow News 2: 12th July 2007

2007-07-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome again to the www.Snow-Forecast.com weekly weather round up.

We've brought the schedule for these forward a day so that people in New Zealand and Australia get to receive our editorials before the weekend.

The southern winter of 2007 continues to prove itself a very different beast to the 2006 El Nino year. Looking at mid Pacific Ocean temperature anomalies, we are not in a La Nina pattern yet and you would still describe things as neutral, but in terms of Pacific weather patterns, it is as if La Nina is well underway already. In all likelihood a full blown La Nina, as defined by water temperatures, will emerge during the winter.

As far as the prospects for the Southern ski season goes, that's very good news for Australia and South America, less good for New Zealand and probably irrelevant to South Africa. South Africa? Surely we’re joking? Not at all – there’s skiing in the Drakensburg at two small resorts and there were several days in 2006 when the tiny resort of Tiffindell at 3000m had better conditions than most in Australia! It's looking good so far this year too and looking at the cam on snow-forecast.com the resort is open right now. A sunny and fairly mild prospect for the next week, but cold enough for snowmaking at night.

Australia
======
The 2007 season has got off to a great start in Australia and last week saw more of the same with new snow about once again, especially at Perisher Blue where the snow base has topped 1.5m - the deepest in Australasia; it's only marginally less at Thredbo and Mount Hotham. These are fantastic conditions for early July. Expect a few cold but fairly settled days before another system brings more snow in the middle of the week. That's so far out that the only thing we can be certain of is that things won't go according to plan, but if by some miracle the weather does follow the forecast, a deep depression will form just off the NSW coast on Wednesday bringing a major dump, especially to the easternmost resorts like Thredbo. I'm more hopeful
than confident.

New Zealand
=========
Across the ditch, New Zealand continues to have a winter of extremes and the latest weather news came from an intense low that crossed the far North of North Island a few days ago. That came up against a characteristic La Nina anticyclone over the South Island and between the two, the isobars were packed and a band of 150km/h easterly winds battered Northland and Coromandel and locally dumped up to 30cm of rain. Affected towns have barely finished mopping up since a similar flood 6 months ago and no doubt they will now be even less comforted by meteorologists assuring them not to worry because these are “every 1000 year events”... This forecaster was especially worried by that storm because if it had tracked just 200km south, Ruhapehu would have received an incredible snowfall and I would have had egg on my face for forecasting a fairly settled week there. Although that didn't
happen, way ahead of the main front, an unexpected little band of snow parked itself over the Mountains of NW Nelson for 24hrs but since there are no ski resorts there, who cares? Well me actually, because that's my back yard! Elsewhere in NZ, it was cold and frosty with easterly snow showers from Canterbury to Ruhapehu (11cm of fresh snow at Mt Hutt was typical).

There are no similar storms in this weeks forecast. It will start off very cold and frosty but pressure is forecast to fall and snow is expected to develop by around Tuesday on a strengthening SE wind, with places like Mt. Hutt, Mt Olympus, Porters and Mt Lyford best placed to catch most. If (big if) the deep low materialises in the Tasman as forecast, then New Zealand can expect it to arrive right at the end of the week in 8 or 9 days, but given the lack of observations in the Southern Ocean, this is mere speculation.

The Andes
=======
South America is a huge place and even the mighty Southern Alps of New Zealand would be mere foothills next to the Andes, but for all it's vast potential, there are not very many ski resorts and they span such a vast area it is difficult to give a quick synopsis. This is a shame because if Australia is having a great season, then the Andes are having a superb one. Last week was exceptionally cold as Antarctic air made its way north, even reaching Buenos Aires where it caused the first snowfall since 1918! The snow mainly settled on the roofs of cars, so that's where the kids built their snowmen. Further afield, temperatures fell as low as -22C in Rio Negro province of Argentina and -18C in parts of Araucania region in the south of
Chile.

Up in the resorts, the cold air did not bring any big dumps of snow, but with well over 2m of snow already in places like Chapelco and Catedral in Argentina and about 1.5m in most resorts in Chile, nobody is complaining. With plenty of new snow in the forecast this week, things are looking great - check our web pages for the details – and we have had several offers from ski people in this part of the world to help us update our bulletins so watch this space…

Europe
=====
Last week again saw significant new snow on most Alpine glaciers. The weather is much sunnier now and it should stay that way for the next few days, then getting slowly warmer but with an increasing risk of thunderstorms. For those of you who assume that glacier skiing in the Alps consists of a few short T bars on icy slopes, Dachstein in Austria currently has 63km of pistes open on a 4.3m base - most places in Australasia never get that good.

Best wishes - until next week,

Rob Davies - www.snow-forecast.com

World Snow News 1: 6th July 2007

2007-07-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first editorial of the 2007 Southern Ski Season from www.snow-forecast.com. We will try and make it a regular weekly feature for the rest of our season for our active subscribers and recent participants in our free days (congratulations to Tobias in Germany who won a ski book and 12 month membership the latest draw).

The Northern Winter of 2006/2007 was one that Europe and parts of the USA would prefer to forget because it barely happened. Christmas and the New Year in the European Alps felt more like October - the lower and even middle slopes were still green and where the was snow, crowds were horrendous. Afterwards, things improved: the westerly Atlantic air managed some decent dumps especially at higher resorts, but below 2000m, the season was brief. Low altitude resorts in Scotland and along the American Eastern seaboard endured marginal conditions for yet another season and now some face an uncertain future. Even so, it wasn't all bad news by any means because the Canadian Rockies had an incredible season - often with too much snow rather than too little: Some people blamed Global Warming for the odd winter weather, others pointed to El Nino and the North Atlantic Oscillation as more likely causes. We live in interesting times…

In the Southern Hemisphere, winter 2007 has started very differently to 2006, largely because El Nino conditions have faded away and there is a fair chance that there will be a switch to La Nina conditions as the winter progresses, with only a brief spell of "normal" Pacific conditions. Based on historical measures, we would expect a better than average ski season in Australia and fairly ordinary one in New Zealand, perhaps suffering a warmer spring than usual and certainly warmer than last spring when southerlies would have allowed skiing until Christmas were it not for all the construction work at Ruhapehu.

So far, things are going to plan for winter 2007, although the side effects of changing weather patterns have brought mixed fortunes. On the one hand the long drought of SE Australia has broken at last, but on the other, both Australia and New Zealand have seen some pretty wild and destructive weather with widespread floods and in Taranaki, North Island, even a swarm of destructive tornados last night as a depression crossed NZ from the Tasman Sea.

On the hills, things are looking really good in the Australian resorts with a decent base after recent dumps and a settled week in prospect with just a few showers to keep it fresh on the pistes. Conditions are improving quickly in the South Island resorts of New Zealand and it is snowing right now at many resorts from Canterbury north to Ruhapehu - all the way to East Cape in fact, as a bitterly cold SE airstreams dumps the second significant fall of the season.

This should take snow depths close to 1m at most resorts, about average for the date, and meanwhile cause problems on higher roads over the next few days, with snow to near sea level in places like Akaroa and Kaikoura. Carry chains and expect delays for road clearing this weekend, and if you do plan to ski in central NZ and are not too obsessed with making the first tracks, bear in mind there should be better weather conditions through next week. Further south around the Southern Lakes, the snow has already fallen and there is a superb clear and cold weekend in prospect.

Resorts in South America and those in the high glacier resorts of Europe have a cloudy and snowy prospect yet again and an odd combination of a mild winter followed by a cold and wet summer means that conditions in the European glaciers are probably better now than they were in January. Go figure.

To see the benefits of snow-forecast.com membership visit: http://www.snow-forecast.com/membership.php

Best wishes,

The Snow-Forecast.com Team