Snow & Weather

Australia has record-breaking early snow and opens up, Europe has record-breaking late snow but closes down. Why?

It’s snowing in places, melting in others but many resorts in the Northern Hemisphere are closed. The Alps has just had a serious dump in places. Here’s the snow overview on 29th April.

It’s snowing heavily in parts of the Alps with 3/4m set to fall in some places. Good news for the few skiers and snowboarders out, but not so good for others.

Winter has returned to the Alps with some people dancing for joy and others most definitely not. Parts of Switzerland, France and Italy are experiencing some of their heaviest snowfalls of the winter, just when they thought it was all over. Well, it’s not!

In many places winter still isn’t over. Italy seems to have hit the jackpot this week with more heavy snow. Spain continues its amazing season with further snowfalls. Many resorts though are closing.

The snow is back, some resorts are still open, others are extending their season and we’ve just had a powder day in Switzerland. Again! Where is still open?

Yesterday we were having a beer in the sun wearing shorts and flip flops; today we’re getting our powder skis back out. Parts of Switzerland are set to receive another half metre over the next few days.

Check out our snow over view as there’s still plenty around. Many resorts are closing, but others are extending the season.

The resorts in the Northern Hemisphere are winding down and yet it’s still snowing in many places. However, the Southern Hemisphere is springing into life.

The thaw is causing problems with large wet snow avalanches, flooding and swollen rivers. 3 youngsters have drowned in fast flowing rivers in Austria.

There’s a spring in our step too at PlanetSKI as we love it at this time of year. It can provide some of the best conditions of the winter.

Here in the Alps there is powder to be found – again. It’s turning into a great end to the season and it’s set up well for the Easter holidays. Check out the fresh reports, pictures and video.

Spring has been put on hold and winter has returned. Check out the reports, pictures and video.

That’s the message from safety experts after a number of avalanches. The temperature is warm and fresh snow is now resting on a crusty layer.

Here’s the update on conditions in the mountains on Wednesday, March 18th. French meteorologists report that winter 2008-09 to date is 1.2 degrees cooler than usual.

Many parts of the Alps are being buffeted by another huge snowfall. It’s been snowing for 2 days in some places with already good conditions getting even better.

Here’s the updated report on Wednesday, March 4th. Europe has had a quieter week to recover from its huge snowfall but more is now falling. It’s also dumping in Western North America.

This winter has seen the best snow in recent times. So why has it snowed so much and what, if anything, does it tell us about climate change? PlanetSKI investigates.

Here’s the updated report on Wednesday, February 25th – yet more snow is falling, especially in Austria.

Over 2 metres of snow has fallen with great skiing conditions but towns have been cut off and there is a serious danger of avalanche.

Here’s the updated report on February 21st – it’s snowing again across the mountains!

After a long drought scientists make it snow

After last week’s spectacular snowfalls, temperatures shot up 5 degrees at the ski areas leading to a melting of the snow.

There’s yet more fresh snow in the Alps. With half term around the corner it’s all looking pretty good out here.

Here’s the updated report on February 12th and to make a change we’re starting in Yorkshire!

Following all the recent snow in the UK a sledge company in Scotland sells almost 30,000 in a week.

Where the snow is and where it isn’t. But perhaps that should read where it is and where there’s more of it.

It’s been quite a winter there too as our PlanetSKI contacts testify. The best for decades and it is still snowing.

We’ve just had half a metre of snow here in Verbier and today all the lifts opened. Check out the video.

Another big storm has dumped snow across the Alps bringing excellent conditions, but also travel problems.

The Alps have been buffeted by another big storm though the temperature has risen so it’s not good for everyone. A team from PlanetSKI was in Chamonix at the weekend.

It’s dumping it down in the Alps again though in North America conditions are pretty patchy.

Many resorts have received some fresh snow and more is set to come this week. It’s a welcome sight as some pistes were getting a bit hard packed and bare. See the video.

It hasn’t snowed in weeks, what’s here was skied out ages ago and it’s now hard packed and windblown. The rocks though remain covered and the slopes are deserted. Apparently more snow is forecast soon. We have an updated video in this report too.

Marseilles in France has snow for the first time in over 20 years, Britain shivers and its pretty cold at 3,000m in the Alps too.

More snow is needed. The last widespread fall was at the New Year but at least the cold temperatures have preserved it.

An unidentified snowboarder set off the slide that killed a woman in Snowbird

Switzerland has just had it’s coldest night of the winter with the temperature dropping to -26c.

The heavy snowed has eased off but many places in the Alps had a fresh fall on New Year’s eve.

A fresh fall on New Year’s Eve helped top up conditions nicely. Check out the video of the powder on New Year’s Day.

Heavy snowfalls in parts of the USA and most of Canada have caused severe disruption.

A Canadian woman was found alive, buried in 58cm of snow three days after she went missing

We have some videos, a few pictures and tales of powder underfoot and blue skies overhead.

As the season proper gets under way we’re taking a closer look at the situation. The amount of snow, how it bodes for this winter and the impact on the ski industry.

Here’s our weekly update of conditions. It’s looking pretty good but we do have a few words of caution.

Zermatt is cut off, Val d’Isere is shut and winds have been gusting to almost 200 kilometres per hour in places. There have been scores of road accidents, power cuts and whole communities cut off.

The top lift in the Swiss resort is now open and PlanetSKi was there to film it. Sadly a person was caught in a big avalanche off the back of Mont Fort on Monday.

We went to the bar for some drinks last night in Verbier and this is what we saw when we stumbled out. Shed loads of snow.

There’s been further snowfall across the Alps making it the best start to the season in years. However it’s been marred by the first avalanche death.

As if the season hasn’t got off to a good enough start there’s a new snow storm is on its way. This time hitting the southern Alps. More resorts are opening this weekend too.

As we’ve been reporting over the past few days it’s been snowing big time across the Alps and a team from planetSKI is there to report back on the excellent early season conditions. Check out the video too.

Here’s a few photos of the snow in Switzerland this week. If you want more take a look at photos of the week.

Heavy snow has been falling across large parts of the Alps with some resorts opening and others unable to because of too much snow. A team from planetSKI was in the Swiss Alps at the weekend.

Slab avalanches are the most common type to kill people and now Scottish scientists have fresh research on how they may occur.

More ski resorts are opening this weekend in the Alps and the Pyrenees. Many ahead of schedule. We have reports direct from the Alps, the Rockies and the Pyrenees from people already out enjoying the snow. Bring it on!