There have also been tons of fresh snow in Andermatt UR in the last few days.Image: keystone
The Swiss mountains are currently literally drowning in snow. The current snow depth map shows where and how much of the white splendor lies.
Feb 19, 2026, 1:21 p.mFeb 19, 2026, 1:21 p.m
In the third week of February there were large amounts of fresh snow in the Swiss mountains. It snowed heaviest in western and northern Valais. Up to 130 centimeters fell there in three days and up to 250 centimeters in seven days. It also snowed heavily on the northern slopes of the Alps, although the foothills of the Alps and the Graubünden Alps were somewhat less affected.
According to Lukas Dürr from the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), snowfalls as intense as these days only occur every five to ten years. The reason for the extensive snowfall was a strong north-westerly current that transported moist air in batches from the sea directly into the Alps, where it created a northerly storage situation.
The current snow depth map shows how much snow there is currently in the Swiss mountains. According to this, there is sometimes over three meters of snow in the high Alps. With the amount of new snow that has fallen, the snow situation has eased somewhat, particularly in the Valais Alps and in areas from the Bernese Oberland via the Central Swiss Alps to the Alpstein, and there is about as much snow as the long-term average (1991 to 2020). Only the lower elevations as well as the eastern Alps and the southern side of the Alps show a deficit.
In the last few days there has been extreme weather not only in the Alps, but also in southwestern Europe. Storm Nile caused massive flooding and serious damage in France, Spain and Portugal. There is no snow in these countries except at the highest altitudes. In contrast, large parts of Eastern and Northern Europe as well as the Southern Balkans are completely covered in white.
To the data
The snow depths for Europe come from the geoportal German Weather Service (DWD). The ICON model provides high-resolution snow depth maps based on a grid structure with a 13 kilometer mesh size. The data is updated daily at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.