The second big pre-season snowfall in the Alps is expected to hit today and last to the weekend.
It follows heavy snowfalls in late October which brought up to a metre of new snow to open glaciers in the Alps.
Tignes has closed its glacier today due to strong winds and white out conditions as the first snow arrives. Up to a foot/30cm is expected there tomorrow with more through the rest of the week.
It follows 10days of fairly idyllic conditions on Alpine glaciers after the last fresh snow was followed by largely blue skies and pleasant conditions.
However it is not quite so cold as it was for the snowstorms 10-12 days ago when snow fell to low levels, this time it looks like lower slopes may get heavy rain and there is some doubt as to where the snowline will be, and exactly which resorts will get the most snow, although most forecasters are predicting Swiss glaciers will get dumped on – four are currently open at Gstaad/Les Diablerets (Glacier 3000), Saas Fee, St Moritz (Diavolezzla) and Zermatt while Engelberg was open but just closed for a 10 day lift maintenance period to the 14th.
Overall nearly 20 areas are already open in the Alps and Scandinavia for 2014-15 including the first non-glacier areas to open, up in Lapland, Ruka and Levi.
It has been snowing across the Atlantic and right across the USA with snowfall reported from Carlifornia on the West Coast to Carolina on the East.
Around a dozen ski areas are now open in the US, more than any other country at present, with Loveland in Colorado, Wild Mountain in Minnesota, Sunday River in Maine and two areas in North Carolina all opening in the past few days.