snow
Up to 3m has fallen in parts of Italy and Austria. The huge storm started on Friday and though it has eased, it is still falling in places with a further 1m expected.

Winter has struck with a vengeance in some parts of the Dolomites in Italy and in southern Austria.

Here is the snow coming down in Madonna di Campiglio:



Madonna di Campiglio, Italy
Madonna di Campiglio, Italy
According the Fraser Wilkin from weathertoski.co.uk, the snow is "forecast to intensify on Tuesday, with another 50cm to 80cm possible in the Dolomites as well as the southern Austrian provinces of Carinthia and Osttirol."

Livigno, Italy
Livigno, Italy
Piedmont, Italy
Piedmont, Italy
See here for the latest bulletin from weathertoski.

Other forecasters predict over 1m.

Here was the scene over the weekend in the Tirol in Austria.

Obergurgl, Tirol, Austria
Obergurgl, Tirol, Austria
Obergurgl, Tirol, Austria
Obergurgl, Tirol, Austria
We reported over the weekend as the storm struck.

It is of course not much use for us skiers and snowboarders as the ski resorts remain closed in both countries.

Resorts in Austria are allowed to open on December 24th and this storm will have set some of them up very nicely.

The resorts with the most snow from this storm include those in Carinthia (Nassfeld), and East Tirol (Lienz-Zetterfeld), while Obergurgl in the Tirol has reported 1m of fresh snow.

One of our regular readers, Toby Fishel, is a ski instructor in the Tirol.

He skinned up to make a few turns in the fresh snow.

Toby Fishel in the Tirol
Toby Fishel in the Tirol
There have been a few flurries in France and though the lifts may be closed this didn't stop another of our good friends, Nadine Chevalier, putting on her skins and hiking up.

She lives in the Isere region of the French Alps.

"I did ski touring yesterday in Vercors and it was just amazing with sweet deep snow," said Nadine.

And she sent us these pictures to prove her point.

Vercors, France
Vercors, France
Vercors, France
Vercors, France
And the snow didn't stop the Xmas tree going up in Meribel in Les3Vallees on Monday.

Meribel, Les3Vallees, France
Meribel, Les3Vallees, France
There is danger of avalanche across the areas hit by the snow.

There has been the first avalanche death in Switzerland in the heavy snowfall.

A skier has died near Engelberg in central Switzerland after being caught in an avalanche.

The person was in a group of five skiing off piste.

Two managed to free themselves and called the rescue services.

The 23-year-old victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

There are avalanche warnings of 3 and 4 across parts of Switzerland.

A statement from the International Ski Federation said there was a "high danger of avalanches" in St Moritz due to the unrelenting snowfall.

Fears over potential avalanches in St Moritz led FIS to call off two women's super-G races at the weekend.

snow
The snow though has brought disruption with travel chaos.

There has been some flooding at lower levels with power lines down in places.

The regions of Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, has been hit by severe floods and heavy snow.

On Sunday, about 60 families were evacuated in the vicinity of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region, as the Panaro river burst its banks.

Firefighters in northern Italy have reacted to more than 2,200 incidents in the past 48- hours.

And lets not forget the Pyrenees.

Formigal, Spain
Formigal, Spain