john w

True, Im also worried a 'repeat' of last year is on the cards for the southern alps, especially for late Jan and early feb another snow drought looks on the cards for the southern alps and the western italian alps (some call them the maritime alps) John hokmes is good on mountain meteorology me thinks, John...whats your synopsis on the mountain forecasts for europe in 2008

So long as the high setups give the italian and french alps some good snow I will be ha[ppy. I fear this setup may be a precursor to another bad winter for the alps though

Hi All, I breeze a lot of online weather charts but I am sure I dont know all the links, some of you always post fascinating charts I have no idea where to get, so I thought it would be a good idea to list them all. I tend to use the free services of www.wetterzentrale.de www.netweather.tv Any ideas on more, particularly free and pay long range stuff??

smudger your right, snow over the pyrenees is a strong possibility the next couple of says. I would not worry about the lack of snow though, unless your a pro, the pisteurs did an excellent job while we were there and they were relentless with the snow canons. Be optimistic, fly and enjoy yourself!!

Hi all Im back and I have to say I had non stop skiing all week, the ski club website is a bit misleading. It snowed a bit qwhile I was there but those andoerrans are seriously good at pumping the artificial stuff. I thinkl there was 1 night where it was too warm for the canons, but all other nights, enough was blown to maintain some really good snow that was somewhat like powder in the early mornings! It snowed as I was leaving today (damn typical) but I would say smudger that you have nothing to worry about if it does not snow. I know arinsal was fine, apparantly all resorts in the val-nord area are ok, soldeau and pas de la casa struggle a bit more. Im watching the uk closely now and going to think aboiut next yrs hoiliday

forecasting of course...... I didnt really know about these boards until another team member pointed them out. There are some real pros out on this site that you can have an out of work weather (and climate) related conversation with. Admitadly we get most our data from the Meto but I always keep an eye on the other charts as out [past t-164, I think any chart goes....... its 3 days until I jet off for my skwalking holiday :S

I would agree John, the oceans are definately a big player. The temperature of 70% of the earths surface is undoubtebly going to have an effect on the remaining 30%. Ones only got to look at a strong enso year to see this in action. Im quite impressed with the level of sensible comments over on these boards and Ill have to contribute more often!! Anywayback to the day job..........me tea breaks up

I think over years to come...if the scandinavian countries want it...they could really market their skiing as the 'snowy alternative' to the alps. With regard to your comment John, I did most my masters on snow cover photogrammetry on the peaks of much of the swiss and austrian alps and simonously tried to attrribute the change to global atmospherical chnage. Generally the results showed quite poor correlation with global CET temps and central european CET. It seemed to be better correlated to average wind direction and the overlying behaviour of the jet etc. I found it quite interesting but cant help but think that increased temperatures in some parts are going to have a influence on the positioning of the jet etc. The atmosphere is so full of complicated feedback loops that I dont think anyone understands 100%. The relationship of the pressure and airmasses and weather to the upper winds is well understood...heck a lot of people on here know how to negotiate the charts...but im not so sure that people will completely understand what a temp raise in one part of the world....will entirely affect the rest.....maybe an interesting PHd topic...but that aint for me!

Its extremely worrying for the ski resorts this time of year this time round. So many have suffered and unfortunately its often to the testament of the skiers and boarders. As far as I know some of the pyrenees and spanish resorts have not seen snow since the start of December. I am sorry to say i think ill be lucky to egt on the slopes in Andorra this year and went there as its supposed to have reasonable snow in JAN Also I have never been there before. If Wengen Grindalwald and also Muuren are not looking too hopefull. I am practically looking at a walking holiday. Think apart from the 1st day of skiing back in 2000, this is the first ski holiday at this time of yearthat I am expecting it to be artificial or nothing for the whole week I am away.

Ha, Thanks for the vote of confidence. Its been quite bad season though the dumps recently in the alps have definately helped things. Im seriously considering canada next year. At least the temps should keep some of the artificial stuff on the ground in Andorra, would seem a sham to pay 400 quid for a week of hiking. Optimism that they may have had a little sprinkle in the past 6 hours.....though it probablky fell as rain.

Hi smudger I have to say the prospects for our trip look quite poor next week. Any snow that seems to get forcast for andorra on the GFS is a in FI and gradually petters out and vanishes from all forecasts the closer towards the date it becomes. This time 2 weeks ago andorra were looking forward to 10-15mm of snow. As seems to be pertinantly usual around the high pressure, this did not materialise and a good deal of the country is once again relying on snow canons working overtime just to provide the holiday makers with some white stuff to ski on. Next week on current gfs outputs looks promising, but if that high pressure does not move you can forget it. I would say though that by mid feb, I would at least expect there to be a bit more snow than there is now! I have learnt from this and will be going either later in the season to europe next yr or earlierin the season to Canada

Hi all Im a bit of a keen weather watcher, but never tend topost despite having a degree in the subject. Ive been watching the potential for snow in Andorra as a group of us are heading off to Arinsal in a week and a half. I find it pertinantly annoying the way some sites act to report on a site in detail. But they are actually using weather stations 200km away. I have looked at GFS and also the various ensembles models of them. I find wetterzentrale.de an invaluable resource and of course the easier english charts here on net-weather. Anyway, my point is im not seeing much snow because of the stronger high pressure over spain at the moment. There looks as though there maybe a trough of low pressure that will slip up Northeastwards from the East of Spain with an associated wet warm front that may bring some snow. But I am not at all helpful. I am even considering cancelling and going somewhere else. Can anyone further shed some light or (id be even more pleased) if you could proove me wrong. Our best chance I see is next Weds- Sat where some reasonable measures of precipitation look likely. I fear however that on the warmer air, it will fall as rain. Many thanks for any answers John

Could any of you guys let us know how it looks for andorra, I know its a fair way off from the alps, but I am slightly optimistic that some of this precip hitting the alps would at least fall on the andorran pyrenees!!!! I just wish that high over spain would nudge just a l;ittle south

I agree the alps are looking quite promising, I dont think the same is going to happen for those pyrenees though....a couple of weeks on artificial snow I fear. Lets hope those snow cannons keep pasting some snow on the slopes

Hi I am a bit worried about arinsal in andorra where I hope to ski in 2 weeks this weekend. There seems to be a high parked over the pyrenees for all that time and I think its gunna be snow cannon snow....or an absolute disaster! Heres hoping!

Good storm just passed over bracknell, headed towards maidenhead/windsor