Snow in the Chamonix valley already!

Well its true that the weather in the mountains changes quickly. in the last 3 days we have seen the snow line around Chamonix drop from 2700 meters down to 900 meters. We woke up on Saturday morning to a 5cm blanket of snow. Of course its very early for snow at that altitude and its not going to stay for long. It may however be enough up on the ski areas above 2000 meters to create a bit of a base. I can remember in late October Novemeber 1996 it snowed a total of 2 meters in the Chamonix valley over a 2 week period leading way to the best start of a season I have ever seen. The only problem was that a dry spell followed which lasted until Febuary.

Some Chamoniards Say that a lot of early snow falls can oftern lead to less snow during the peak of winter. Personally I think the weather is too unpredictable over a long period to really say. I have lived in the Chamonix valley for 13 years now and ive seen many freaky weather changes like 23 degrees in February followed quickly by  - 23 and loads of snow. Ive even seen it snow in the town of Chamonix in mid September when just 2 days before it was 26 and sunny!

One thing we can be sure of is that  it snows every winter!  The question is always how much is coming?