Europe 1 with AFP 5:32 p.m., December 23, 2022

Savoie and Haute-Savoie have been placed on orange alert by Météo-France from this Friday at 4 p.m. until Saturday at 6 a.m.

The two departments can also expect to spend Christmas under the snow.

Météo-France nevertheless warns against a "high risk of triggering avalanches".

Météo-France placed Savoie and Haute-Savoie on Friday in orange rain-flood vigilance, where high risks of triggering avalanches when skiers pass 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 on 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.

"If the confidence is rather good concerning the quantities of rain forecast, the uncertainty concerns the contribution of the melting of the snowpack present on the ground below 1,800 to 2,000 meters" due to the mild temperatures, he underlines .

Christmas in the snow

The highest massifs such as Mont-Blanc, Beaufortain and Haute-Tarentaise are the most affected by heavy rainfall.

"The snowpack is settling and melting, so we have both the amounts of precipitation and a supply of water from the melting", explains to AFP Sophie Tessier, deputy director at the meteorological center of the Northern Alps.

"It trickles on the surface of the snowpack and it gorges the small mountain torrents at medium altitude".

"For the majority of mountain resorts, this is not good at all because there will be no refreeze tonight and this wet snow will remain wet and difficult to ski", she notes.

Currently, the snow cover, quite low, amounts to about 20 cm at 1,500 m, 50-60 cm at 2,000 m, and ranges between 60 and 120 cm at 2,500 m.

Many ski resorts have only partially opened their areas.

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.

Météo-France warns in a special press release against a "high risk of triggering avalanches when skiers pass through the northern Alps this Saturday" and recommends "the greatest caution to hikers for this Christmas weekend".

“Below 2200/2500 m, the snow is moistened, sometimes in depth, the skier will be able, in the steepest slopes, to carry under his skis, all or part of the snowpack in place”, indicates the institution.

The snowpack should gradually stabilize from Sunday at medium altitudes thanks to a nocturnal refreeze.