North America – west of the Rockies, has finally received huge snowfalls in the past few days after a largely warm and dry January, dramatically improving conditions. Scotland has its best conditions so far this winter with virtually all runs open and Sweden has also received a big powder boost.
Natural snowfall over the past week in Viet Nam and in the United Arab Emirates has been declared a “once in a generation” occurrence in both of the normally hot countries. In Viet Nam a thin layer of snow was deposited on Mau Son Mountain and in the United Arab Emirates, the northern emirate of Ras al Khaimah reported that a three mile wide area in its Jebel Jais mountain range received four inches (10cm) of snow on Friday, “a situation so rare that the local dialect doesn’t even have a word for it.” according to media reports.
Excitement is mounting ahead of the start of the World Alpine Skiing Championships in Val d’Isere next week. But after good falls of snow in the French Alps last week, the snow gods have shifted their attention back to this season’s favourite region, the Pyrenees, in recent days with 13 powder alarms in the French Pyrenees yesterday (Tuesday, January 27th) alone. Cauterets received a huge 145cm (nearly five feet) of fresh snow in the past week.
Elsewhere in the Pyrenees another 50cm (20 inches) of snow fell across Andorra’s mountains on Monday continuing the superb season there,

We have a lot of snow this winter , it’s fantastic and I hope skiers will continue to come until the first of May,”

said Ski Andorra’s Marta Rotes.
In Eastern Europe Bulgaria received 20cm (eight inches) of fresh snow at the weekend, further improving conditions there.

In Western North America the roller coaster season continues to swing between the dry warm weather that dominated before Christmas and mid-January and has now returned to the heavy snowfall of late December. In California Mammoth mountain reported five feet (1.5m) of snow accumulating over four days and in Colorado Steamboat reports that it is “drowning in powder.”
Back in Europe and North America where snow falls in unusually heavy quantities, the avalanche risk is often high and there are normally warnings in place against venturing in to the mountains until conditions improve. Avalanche deaths in the past week have include three walkers in the mountains of Scotland and ten climbers in Turkey.