It's still snowing
Wednesday December 2, 2009 - Email this article to a friend

The storm in The Alps is continuing with Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy reporting fresh snow. In some places up to 50cm has fallen with more set to come. Winter is most definately back.

Large parts of the Alps are benefitting from the snow storm.

In Tignes, France, there has been a 2 days snow storm though on Wednesday morning people have woken up to a blue sky day with fresh snow. It was snowing up until Tuesday night and then it cleared.

The weather is the same across the other resorts in the area though it is due to close in again on Thursday with further snowfalls.

Tuesday night in Tignes

Up on the slopes of Tignes, Wednesday afternoon

Pretty much all parts of Switzerland has been affected with lowly Villars reporting 30cm of fresh snow on the slopes and a further 20cm in town and still it is falling. In Zermatt the main square is covered in snow.

Meanwhile a friend of ours has been out with a ruler in Verbier and measured 36.5cm of fresh snow in town. There nothing like checking it for yourself rather than relying on tourist office measurements.

Some resorts say they could have up to 75cm before the storm passes in the middle of the week, however it does look like the temperature will then rise so some of the low level falls will undoubtedly melt.

Tuesday over the JuraOne of our readers flew into Geneva airport on Tueday morning.

"There was a thick cloud over the Jura mounains and when there was a break in the cloud it revealed a deep covering of snow over the range," he tells us. "It's always great to see snow on the Jura as it means it's cold."

The weather has prevented resorts like Andermatt from opening but, all in all, it has brought a huge sigh of relief from ski resorts as they began to worry about the conditions. Andermatt has now had almost 1m of fresh snow this week.

Down in the southern French Alps, Serre Chevalier reports a white out with around 15cm of snow.

The snow has brought some travel disruption and police are warning drivers to put on winter tyres and snow chains if the conditions need them.

The Gottard pass in Switzerland has been badly affected and at least one lane is now open in both directions. Lorries are being allowed to travel south at the rate of one a minute.

On Monday traffic to come to a standstill at times, with both trucks and cars blocking te road because they were not prepared for winter conditions.

Also the snow was falling heavily at times and as soon as the authorities had cleared it off the road then it settled again.

The Pyrenees has also been hit by a separate storm and the resorts in Andorra says they should be able to open this coming weekend.

We have been updating our weekly snow overview with the latest news but in the meantime we thought we'd simply show you some photos that have been sent in to us from Switzerland. As we get more, from other resorts and countries, we will put them up so do check back.

Enjoy!

Les Gets, Portes du Soliel, France