Snow down to 1,000 m: All Saints' Day brings light snow to Austria and Bavaria

A skier on the glacier piste below the gondola at the Kitzsteinhorn near Kaprun, Salzburg, in January 2017. Photo: Daniel Frank via Wikimedia Commons, CC0

A cold upper-level low brings snow down to about 1,000 m in the northern and eastern Alps on Sunday 1 November 2026, All Saints' Day. Germany's weather service expects 1 to 5 cm above 1,000 m in the Bavarian Alps and up to 15 cm in the Berchtesgaden Alps. Switzerland and France stay dry.

• On Sunday 1 November the snow line drops to about 1,000 m on the north side of the Alps.
• In Styria it can fall to 700–1,000 m, according to two Austrian outlets.
• The German weather service DWD forecasts 1–5 cm, and 5–15 cm in the Berchtesgaden Alps.
• At 3,000 m the temperature falls to about −12 °C on Sunday.
• Stubai, Pitztal, Kaunertal, Sölden and the Kitzsteinhorn already have skiing on their glaciers.

The cold of 31 October and 1 November does not come from the west. A low that exists only in the upper air steers moist, colder air from the north-east into southern Germany and Austria, Germany's weather service DWD wrote on Saturday morning. Brisk north-easterly winds come with it.

On Saturday 31 October the snow line is still between 1,000 and 1,500 m, depending on the forecast and the region. Light snow showers can start on the northern edge of the Alps, from the Bavarian Alps to the Salzkammergut, on Saturday afternoon. The main snow falls in the night to Sunday and on Sunday.

Most forecasts agree on about 1,000 m for Sunday 1 November. The Austrian outlet eXXpress, which follows the GeoSphere Austria forecast, gives "around 1,000 metres" and a strong north wind with poor visibility on the northern slopes.

The weather service of Austria's public broadcaster, ORF Wetter, expects snow above about 900 m on Sunday. In Styria, the snow line falls to 700–1,000 m as north-easterly air piles up against the mountains, 5min.at and oe24 wrote. The forecaster UBIMET puts it just below 1,000 m in the northern Alps, according to Heute.

The amounts are small. The DWD is the only source with figures in centimetres: "between 1 and 5, in the Berchtesgaden Alps 5 to 10, on windward slopes there up to 15 cm of fresh snow" above about 1,000 m, from Saturday evening to Sunday evening.

On Sunday the temperature at 2,000 m is about −6 °C and at 3,000 m about −12 °C, eXXpress wrote. In the valleys, highs stay between about 4 and 12 °C. Austria's GeoSphere had no weather warnings active on Saturday morning.

View from the Jenner above Berchtesgaden on Saturday 31 October 2026, 08:30, before the snow. The DWD expects up to 15 cm here by Sunday evening. Photo: www.foto-webcam.eu

West of Austria a high pressure area stays in charge. "In Switzerland and France the high stays in charge, with a sea of fog over the Mittelland and sunshine above," the ski site Snowplaza wrote. MeteoSwiss forecasts no precipitation from Saturday to Monday for Zermatt and Engelberg, and the high Swiss stations were dry and below freezing on Saturday morning.

The snow does not open new ski areas. It falls on the glaciers that already run, and helps their autumn pistes. The table shows what the operators publish, as of Saturday 31 October 2026.

In Austria, the rule for winter tyres in winter conditions applies from Sunday 1 November. The week from Monday 2 November stays cold and mostly dry, with no large amounts of new snow in sight, according to Snowplaza.

Early-season glacier pistes are narrow, groomed hard and often icy in the morning at −10 °C. A few centimetres of new snow do not change that. Sharp edges and a ski that grips on hard snow matter more than width.

For these days, compare the Atomic Redster Q7 with the Rossignol Experience 80 Carbon on the makers' figures, or let Pick-a-Ski rank the catalog for your level and terrain.