Météo France placed Savoie and Haute-Savoie on Friday, December 23 in orange vigilance “rain flood”, where high risks of avalanche are also reported at altitude.
A disturbance gives significant accumulations of rain on the western slopes of the Northern Alps (and the Jura and the Vosges to a lesser extent) and a “new burst of more sustained rain is currently located in the Center-Val-de-Loire and is heading towards the eastern side of the country”announces Météo-France.
From 25 to 50 mm of precipitation have already fallen since Thursday evening on the Savoyard massifs with a rain / snow limit around 2,300 meters, according to the bulletin.
Avalanche risk
“While the confidence is quite good regarding the forecast rainfall amounts, the uncertainty concerns the contribution of the melting of the snowpack present on the ground below 1,800 to 2,000 meters” because of the mild temperatures, he points out.
In Haute-Savoie, set sail on Lake Geneva
A large part of the massifs of the Northern Alps also presents high avalanche risks (level 4 on a scale of 5) above 2,000 meters in altitude. The Savoy prefecture has called on hikers in this regard “with the greatest vigilance”.
Many ski resorts have currently only partially opened their ski areas due to lack of snow and weather conditions.
