Steady rain in Albertville, snow stays above 2,000 m

Steady rain is settling in over the Isère valley on Thursday 8 October: at 7:31, the Savoie Snow station in Albertville had already recorded 14.6 mm of rain since midnight, with 14.5 °C and 95% humidity. Snow stays confined to the high mountains.

What the Albertville station measures

According to the Savoie Snow station in Albertville (reading at 7:31):

• temperature: 14.5 °C (maximum since midnight 14.8 °C, minimum 14.5 °C);
• rain today: 14.6 mm, against 33.2 mm accumulated since the start of October;
• wind: calm, highest gust of the day 2.9 km/h;
• pressure: 1,011 hPa.

In other words, nearly half of October's total fell in a few hours overnight.

The forecast for Albertville

According to the Open-Meteo model forecast published by Savoie Snow (read on 8 October at 7:31), rain should continue all day: about 27 mm in total today, with a 100% probability of precipitation and temperatures between 10.9 °C and 15.6 °C. These are model figures, not measurements: the actual total will depend on local showers and storms.

• Thursday 827 mm10.9 to 15.6 °C, rain all day
• Friday 90 mm9.5 to 16.7 °C, sunny spells
• Saturday 100.7 mm9.2 to 18.4 °C, cloudy
• Sunday 110.1 mm8.3 to 17.7 °C, cloudy

The model then shows dry weather returning on Monday 12 (6.8 to 18.6 °C). The franceinfo site (page of 8 October, in French) also describes overcast skies and rain over Albertville, with 10 to 15 °C expected.

In the mountains: snow, but very high up

According to the Savoie Snow mountain forecast (Open-Meteo model), the 0 °C isotherm sits around 2,970 m and the rain-snow limit between 2,550 and 2,750 m. Among the resorts tracked, only Val Thorens (2,333 m) shows any forecast snow over three days: 1.6 cm. Everywhere else rain dominates, with for instance 7 °C in Val d'Isère (1,849 m) and 3.9 °C in Val Thorens.

The snow forecast by massif, read on 8 October at 7:31 for the next 48 hours, shows totals concentrated at altitude. At 2,500 m:

• Belledonne22 cmhigh scenario; 5 cm in the low scenario
• Aravis13 cm3 to 13 cm depending on the scenario
• Beaufortain11 cm0 to 11 cm depending on the scenario
• Maurienne7 cm1 to 7 cm depending on the scenario
• Vanoise6 cm1 to 6 cm depending on the scenario
• Mont-Blanc6 cm1 to 7 cm depending on the scenario

At 2,000 m, only the Chartreuse stands out with 12 cm in the high scenario; Belledonne (4 cm) and the Bauges (2 cm) follow. At 1,500 m the total is zero in every massif. These values are model estimates, and snow that falls is not the same as snow depth on the ground. The rain-snow limits in this table (from 1,600 m in the Chartreuse to 2,700 m in Haute-Maurienne) vary by massif and period: they do not exactly match the one in the mountain forecast above, which comes from a different calculation.

Weather warnings

We could not read a dated Météo-France warning bulletin on vigilance.meteofrance.fr at the time of writing. Check the Météo-France bulletin (in French) for Savoie and Haute-Savoie before travelling.

Key points

• Steady rain on Thursday in Albertville: 14.6 mm already measured at 7:31, about 27 mm forecast for the day.
• The model expects an improvement from Friday, with a dry, mild weekend (16 to 18 °C in the afternoon).
• Fresh snow stays above 2,000 m, mainly around 2,500 m in Belledonne, Aravis and Beaufortain.
• For road conditions see /en/roads/savoie; for snow see /en/snow/northern-alps.