Stormy weather to target southern Europe, Mediterranean Coast for early December

A potent storm is targeting southern Europe for the first days of December, bringing more wet weather to areas hit hard at the end of November.

The storm first began to take shape in the North Sea, between the United Kingdom and Denmark early in the week, before diving southward across central Europe.

Cold air in place across the region will lead to heavy snow across the mountainous areas from Switzerland and Austria into Italy and the western Balkans.

The highest snowfall is expected in the Alps, where as much as 15-30 cm (6-12 inches) is possible through Thursday. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 38 cm (15 inches) is anticipated.

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As the storm continues to swirl over Italy into Thursday, snow will fall across the central and northern Apennines, where 15-30 cm (6-12 inches) can accumulate. Snow was reported even at lower elevations in the Po Valley in northern Italy. On Wednesday afternoon, snow fell in Milan, but there was no lasting accumulation.

Meanwhile, lower elevations in Italy and the coast of the Adriatic Sea are forecast to get another round of heavy rainfall.

Many locations will have 25-50 mm (1-2 inches) of rain from Italy to the western Balkans, with areas from coastal Croatia to northern Albania receiving 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) of rain. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ rainfall of 200 mm (8 inches) is possible along the western slopes of the Dinaric Alps.

The impacts from this storm will be compounded with the heavy rainfall and snow accumulations from the most recent storm over the weekend that stretched from Italy into the Balkans.

"There was very little time for drying out between the storm last weekend and the current storm, which could exacerbate the threat for flooding," AccuWeather Meteorologist Rob Richards said.

In addition to flash flooding, river and stream flooding is also anticipated in this area. Should any location get hit with multiple heavy downpours, the ground may become saturated enough for mudslides.

While this storm continues to drench portions of the central Mediterranean through the end of the week, another storm is forecast to swing into western Europe. This next storm may bring damaging winds to western France by Thursday. Eventually, it can swing into southern Europe bringing another around of rain and mountain snow from Italy to the Balkans late week and into the weekend.

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