High-altitude snow next week, five weeks before skiing

After a dry, mild first half of October, snow is back in the forecast for the Northern French Alps. Between Sunday 18 and Wednesday 21 October the model shows several days of rain and snow, with snow only in the high mountains: above 2,500 to 3,000 m, the top of the big resorts in Savoie and Isère could get 25 to 70 cm. The villages will mostly see rain.

Where the most snow is expected

Fresh snow forecast over 7 days at the top of each ski area (model forecast read on Friday 16 October at 15:52):

• Bonneval-sur-Arc71 cmat 3,000 m · Haute-Maurienne, mainly Tuesday
• Les 2 Alpes44 cmat 3,600 m · glacier, Oisans
• Val d'Isère36 cmat 3,197 m · Tarentaise
• Alpe d'Huez33 cmat 3,330 m · Pic Blanc, Oisans
• Tignes29 cmat 3,456 m · Grande Motte · 5 cm in the village
• Orelle29 cmat 3,230 m · Maurienne
• Val Thorens28 cmat 3,200 m · 6 cm in the village
• Val Cenis26 cmat 2,800 m · Haute-Maurienne

Most of it would fall on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 October. At Bonneval-sur-Arc, for instance, the model gives 17 cm on Monday, 38 cm on Tuesday and 14 cm on Wednesday at the top, while the village (1,800 m) would get about 45 mm of rain on Tuesday. In Haute-Savoie (Aravis, Chablais, Mont-Blanc), the forecast totals are small for now.

These figures are forecasts 3 to 6 days ahead, recalculated every hour, and they may change a lot by Monday. They are not snow depths on the ground. Out of season, only one of the 39 Météo-France observation stations followed by AlpeSnow has a reading less than 8 days old: there is no reliable measurement of snow cover in the resorts yet.

The first opening dates

This snow does not change the dates the resorts have announced for winter 2026-27:

• 21 November: Tignes, Val Thorens and Orelle, the first in the Northern Alps.
• 28 November: Val d'Isère, Les 2 Alpes and Chamonix (partial opening), plus a pre-opening weekend at Avoriaz.
• 4 and 5 December: Courchevel, Méribel, Les Menuires, Flaine, Alpe d'Huez, Vaujany and Oz-en-Oisans, among others.
• 12 December: Paradiski (Les Arcs, La Plagne), Les Saisies, Valloire, Megève and Le Grand-Bornand for continuous skiing.

For cross-country skiing, Bessans plans to open from 31 October and Les Saisies on 11 November, snow permitting. Resort-by-resort details are in the 2026-27 opening dates.

Following the snow

• Snow forecast massif by massif, updated hourly: forecast by massif.
• Resort webcams, to watch the peaks turn white when they are transmitting: all webcams, or each resort page, for example Bonneval-sur-Arc, Tignes or Les 2 Alpes.
• A webcam does not tell you whether a road, run or lift is open: only each resort's official information can confirm that.