The European Alps stay mostly quiet through early Sunday, then turn more active Sunday afternoon through Tuesday with one clear upper-mountain storm and the best snowfall focused near the Swiss-Italian border. Confidence is strongest from Sunday afternoon, April 12, through Tuesday afternoon, April 14, when guidance is most aligned on timing, modest wind impacts, and snow levels falling from roughly 2,400-2,600 meters at the start to about 1,800-2,000 meters late.
Saturday, April 11, and most of Sunday, April 12, look mild and largely dry, so snowfall is limited to spotty high-elevation flakes with little impact. Summit temperatures generally run about 4 C to 7 C during the day, winds stay light to moderate, and guidance is tightly clustered on a quiet start. The main change arrives Sunday afternoon and Sunday night as precipitation spreads into the western and southern Alps. Guidance converges well on the timing of that transition, but intensity still varies by subregion, with the strongest signal aimed at the Swiss-Italian border and the western high Alps rather than the lower northern fringe.
From Sunday afternoon, April 12, through Tuesday, April 14, the guidance is most consistent, and this is the period to trust for specific snowfall and timing. Snow levels start high, around 2,400-2,600 meters, then fall toward 1,800-2,000 meters late Monday into Tuesday, so lower villages remain vulnerable to rain or wet snow before the colder air catches up. Cervinia and Zermatt are best positioned for 20-30 cm, Val d’Isère looks closer to 10-15 cm, and Verbier, Val Thorens, and Tignes are more in the 5-10 cm zone. SLRs mostly start around 6 to 10, so the first part of the storm looks dense, then improve toward 10 to 12 late as snow quality becomes a bit drier. Wind guidance also stays fairly tame, so this looks more like a snow-level and placement forecast than a major wind event.
After Tuesday, the guidance pulls back toward a quieter Wednesday through Friday, then spreads out sharply again for late weekend into early next week. Most solutions keep Wednesday, April 15, through Friday, April 17, mostly dry with light winds and summit temperatures generally back in the 2 C to 8 C range. Beyond Friday, timing, intensity, snow levels, and storm placement diverge meaningfully: the drier camp only manages a light upper-mountain refresh of about 0-10 cm, while a snowier outlier would bring parts of the central and eastern Alps closer to 15-25 cm. Snow levels in that extended period range from roughly 1,300 meters in the colder solution to 2,500 meters or higher in the milder ones, so treat that part of the forecast as tentative.
Resort Forecast Totals (Sun Apr 12 – Tue Apr 14)
- Cervinia – 21-30 cm
- Zermatt – 16-23 cm
- Val d’Isère – 10-15 cm
- Verbier – 7-11 cm
- Val Thorens – 7-10 cm
- Tignes – 6-9 cm
- St. Moritz – 3-5 cm
- Les 3 Vallées – 3-4 cm
- Chamonix – 2-4 cm
- Wengen (Jungfrau) – 1-2 cm
- Samnaun – 1 cm
- Sölden – 0-1 cm
- Kitzbühel – 0 cm
- Cortina d’Ampezzo – 0 cm
- Ischgl – 0 cm
- St. Anton – 0 cm