The Snow Is Back
The Snow Is Back
Published : 16-Feb-2012 10:45
Pic Courtesy of Bad Gastein Tourismusverdand © Claudia Ziegler
After a fairly quiet fortnight in much of Europe and north America for snowfall (the exceptions being the Pyrenees, southern Italy and Eastern Europe), heavy snowfall has returned in the Alps over the past 36 hours.
The ultra-cold weather has moved off Eastwards and a warmer, precipitation laden front from the Atlantic has brought the snow, particularly for Austria and Switzerland this time where most resorts reported at least 30cm (a foot) of new snow in the past day or two, some (Saalbach Hinterglemm) as much as 60cm (two feet).
The Pyrenees are still seeing good falls but Scandinavia too is having some big accumulations, the region's largest resort Are in Sweden reporting 50cm in 48 hours this week.
Things are less good closer to home with The Lecht ski area in Scotland forced to close its slopes due to the current thaw (it's been much warmer in Scotland than England) and the other four centres looking increasingly badly in need of fresh snow. This may come at the weekend with blizzards forecast on Scottish hills.
There's good news across the Atlantic though where snow-starved California has been reporting a foot or so of natural snowfall for most areas in the past few days.
Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows at Lake Tahoe just received a blast of up to 12 inches of new snow at the summit from last night's storm.
Combined with the 14 inches that fell a few days ago, the resorts have 26 inches (65cm) of new snow that has accumulated over the last few days.
A similar series of showers that recently hit the region are predicted over the coming weekend too and the two resorts now offer 5,000 acres of open terrain, 35 lifts, 6 terrain parks and a jib pipe - offering 54 terrain park features.
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