J2Ski Snow Report - December 26th 2024
J2Ski Snow Report - December 26th 2024
Published : 26-Dec-2024 10:58
Val Thorens, and the French Alps, with deep snow and blue sky this week...
Cold and snowy across the Alps, with big snowfalls in the last week followed by clear skies now. Similar conditions on the east and west of North America, and in Japan.
The Snow Headlines - December 26th
- Huge snowfalls and low temperatures in the Alps for Christmas week.
- Scottish centres try to open for Christmas as area sees UK's warmest weather.
- Europe's giant ski areas open most of their terrain for season's peak weeks.
- Some Japanese ski areas report snowiest December in a decade.
- Cold and snowy on US East and West coasts but a dry December in Colorado.
Heavy snow forecast for some American and Japanese ski areas.
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World Overview
We're past the shortest day of the year which means a little more daylight every day in the northern hemisphere. The good news for skiers heading to the Alps is that full winter set in late last week, with heavy snowfall (up to 2m/6.6 feet five-day totals reported) and low temperatures down to low levels.
The downside has been elevated avalanche risk, but that is easing now. It is still a widespread Level 3 (Considerable) Risk so - as always - exercise caution when leaving the piste and always go equipped and never alone.
Elsewhere in Europe, it has been cold and snowy too, almost everywhere apart from Scotland, although the 7-day accumulations outside the Alps have been nearer 50cm rather than the metre-plus totals above 2500m in the Alps.
There has not been as much snowfall in North America over the past week, but there has still been new snow in most areas and the north-western corner of the continent continues to post the world's deepest snowpack at this early point of the season.
Europe
Austria
Skies have started to clear in Austria after a great week of snowfall which saw some regions post up to a metre from two big dumps before and after the weekend. It was very cold too, with temperatures as low as -20C. Whilst it has warmed up and the sunshine has returned now, we're still seeing -10C with highs around freezing.
The snowfall and cold weather have been especially good news for low-lying areas previously relying on machine-made snow.
Austria's big areas including Ischgl, the Skiwelt, Kitzbuhel and the Arlberg are all around 60-80% open, with Mayrhofen and Solden closer to 90%. Saalbach Hinterglemm is only around half open though.
After more sunny days a return of snowfall is expected from the weekend.
France
Some big snowfalls in France this week, heaviest on Thursday-Friday and Sunday-Monday, which saw accumulations of up to 60cm reported before the weekend and then up to aanother metre after, meaning some resorts including Courchevel, Val d'Isere and Val Thorens got over 1.5 metres (five feet) in total over four days.
This very heavy snow was accompanied by gale-force winds at times, pushing up avalanche danger levels.
It was also very cold with ski areas seeing -10 to -15C on high slopes. The sunshine has returned and skies have cleared in recent days for great Christmas conditions with most centres now having most of their runs open. It's currently expected to stay sunny into the weekend with temperatures rising a little but staying close to freezing.
Italy
Italy saw some of the big snowfalls in the north and west, but much lighter accumulations further east.
Ski areas in the Dolomites, including Alta Badia and Val Gardena which have been hosting the latest rounds of Men's World Cup racing, posted 30cm accumulations at the weekend. Otherwise, bases remain pretty thin across the country, but with most slopes open.
Dolomiti Superski, the country's largest ski region, is now at 80% open with some sectors including Kronplatz close to 100%.
It's been a mostly dry and sunny week with just light snowfall and there's little change in that expected through the week. Temperatures continue to be a little below freezing most of the time.
Switzerland
A week of mostly snowy weather across Switzerland, but with some gales thrown in at times for good measure to give blizzard conditions.
By the end of last weekend, several ski areas including Gstaad and Arosa had picked up several feet of snowfall, after which it continued snowing through to Christmas Eve with some very low temperatures too, so some areas hit the 1.5 metres snowfall mark.
Amongst them was Crans Montana which posted 1m in 24 hours on Sunday-Monday alone, transforming a previously lacklustre start to the season. At the same time, ski areas have been opening more terrain with the 4 Valleys reaching 300km open (although it was largely closed by the extreme weather on Monday).
It's been warm and sunnier over the past few days, back up to -5 to +5C at ski area bases and looks set to continue that way into the weekend.
Scandinavia
Scandi ski centres are still posting fairly limited open terrain, mostly between 20% and 50% of their full potential. That's due to the warm autumn delaying snow base build up, but things are continuing to improve with a week of predominantly sub-zero temperatures and light-moderate snowfalls, heaviest in western Norway.
The region's largest area, Sweden's Åre, is posting the most piste kilometres open, but only 40% of its slopes so far.
Pyrenees
It was a pretty good run into Christmas in The Pyrenees, with temperatures back below freezing after last week's warm weather 'blip'. There was light to moderate snowfall through the week with ski areas clocking up 5-10cm accumulations to refresh and gradually build cover.
What's open is completely transformed from next to nothing a fortnight ago to almost everything now with ski areas of all sizes in the region aiming to open as much as they can for Christmas week.
Spain's Baqueira Beret and Formigal as well as Andorra's huge Grandvalira lead the way with most of their slopes open. France's Cauterets has the deepest snow.
Scotland
Scotland is on its usual mix of highs and lows. The highs being occasional low temperatures and fresh snowfall, and the lows being warm weather and violent gales. Alas, the latter delayed the planned start of the season at the weekend for some.
Glenshee was the first to announce a delay until Monday. The warm, wet weather also means that what's open so far is very limited terrain made with SnowFactory snow. On the upside, when they can, Cairngorm, Glencoe, Glenshee and The Lecht all have some terrain open though.
Eastern Europe
It continues to look pretty good for most Eastern European ski areas, although perhaps the caveat there should be the larger, higher centres, which have most of their runs open. That's not so much the case at the smaller, lower centres which need more snow and, if open at all, are typically more like 10-30% open.
Bulgaria's Bansko is the stand-out at present after multiple big falls with the snow lying 1.4m deep high up top (deeper than many areas in the Alps) and 80% of the ski area open. They have warned of high avalanche danger off-piste though.
North America
Canada
Temperatures are consistently cold across Canada at the moment, with highs around -5C, and lows at -15C, in many areas. It's particularly good news for the East Coast, which has seen periods of warm, wet weather through the autumn, but is now seeing reliable snowfall and temperatures good for snowmaking.
In the west, there's been more 10-20cm snowfall accumulations with temperatures staying low here too.
Whistler Blackcomb's vast area is now 80% open and Mount Washington on Vancouver Island has the world's deepest snowpack to date at nearly 3m (10 feet).
USA
The best of the cold and snowy weather in the US has again been in the Northwest where the snow is up to two metres deep now in states like Oregon and Washington.
There have also been some big snowfalls in the northern Rockies for resorts like Jackson Hole and over on the East it has been consistently cold with some fresh snowfall as ski areas in states like Vermont and New Hampshire continue to regain lost ground after the warm and sometimes wet autumn.
Colorado has had very little snowfall and sometimes base-level highs of +10C in the afternoons throughout December but despite this, they're managing to open more terrain and Vail has about 80% of its runs open, the most in the region.
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