Holidaymakers relieved as snow finally falls on the Alps after a dry December

Overdue: Snow falls over Switzerland's Leventina valley
EPA
Ramzy Alwakeel5 January 2016

The Swiss Alps have finally seen snow fall after an extraordinarily mild December that saw bare slopes disappoint skiing fans.

The Swiss resort of Verbier this week witnessed some of the highest snowfall in the region, with about 50cm thought to have fallen since Monday.

A similar amount was forecast to fall overnight in Meribel, France.

Man-made snow was the only feature to break up the otherwise green slopes of areas such as Leysin, Switzerland, during the Christmas period.

And several resorts were forced to delay the opening of their seasons in the first days of the year, with temperatures hitting 9C and holidaymakers pictured enjoying the sun in usually snow-covered areas such as Seefeld.

But forecasters urged caution.

Before: Artificial snow in the ski resort of Cari in Switzerland's Leventina valley was the only snow on the ground in December EPA
EPA

Fraser Wilkin of snow forecasting site weathertoski.co.uk told the Daily Mail: “This snowfall is nothing unusual, it’s just such a contrast with what’s been happening so far.”

He added: “Those resorts above 1,600 or 1,800m will be confident their season is safe, but you can never be absolutely sure. Lower down it’s still far from safe.”

The site had predicted there would be “over a metre of new snow” in parts of the northern French Alps by Wednesday.

“The western Swiss Alps will also do well,” one forecast reads, adding: “The further south and east you go the smaller these snow totals will become.”

The central and eastern Austrian Alps were expected to do least well from the snowfall early in the week.

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