Late-Week Storm to Target Southern Europe

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

January 28,2015; 8:40PM,EST

 

The same storm opening the door for snow showers to stream across the United Kingdom and Ireland will impact southern Europe with rain, mountain snow and gusty winds late in the week.
The storm will drop into southern Europe Thursday night through Friday night in a northwest-to-southeast fashion.
Mainly rain is in store for the lower elevations from northern Spain and southern France to Italy and the western Balkan Peninsula. This includes Bilbao, Spain; Rome and Venice, Italy; and Split, Croatia.
Widespread rainfall totals of 50 to 100 mm (2 to 4 inches) with locally higher amounts will be recorded in northern Spain and the western slopes of Italy's Apennine Mountains, the Dinaric Alps and the Pindus Mountains.

Flash flooding and mudslides are a concern. This danger will only heighten when yet another storm moves across southern Europe in a west-to-east fashion Friday night through the weekend.
In addition to the flooding, "I could also see the storm Thursday night through Friday spawning a few waterspouts along the coast Italy and the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea," stated AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Anthony Sagliani.
Madrid, Spain, will miss out on the heaviest rainfall, but spottier showers will still dampen the city Thursday night through Friday. Steadier rain may follow for Friday night.
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Madrid, however, will not escape the howling winds that will gust between 55 and 80 kph (35 and 50 mph) from Spain to the western Balkan Peninsula. Such winds could cause some tree damage, power outages and rough surf.
Substantial snow in the mountains across southern Europe will complete this winter storm.
"Travelers will have difficulty getting through mountain regions and the high mountain passes," Sagliani added.
While a fresh 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 inches) will fall on the Alps (with the highest accumulations on the northern slopes), at least 30 cm (a foot) of snow is set to bury the highest peaks of the Pyrenees and the western Balkan Peninsula.
Snow will not just be limited to the higher terrain to the north and east of the Alps.
As the storm drops southward, a bit of accumulating snow will streak northward to Berlin, Germany, Thursday night. On Friday, snowfall generally on the order of 8-15 cm (3-6 inches) will press from the Alps to the vicinity of Slovakia.