With freezing levels at 2500 meters coupled with rain today it is officially one of the worst starts to winter for 25 years; although Meteo France is more measured calling it a "once in a decade" event. The snow cover in the Northern Alps is virtually non-existent below 1500 meters.

However the situation is different from the disastrous winters of the late 1980s and 1990s. Then the problem was a dry conditions, a snow drought, which saw little precipitation all winter. Today there is ample rainfall just not low enough temperatures to turn it into snow, at least not at resort levels. 2014 has been exceptionally warm in France. Paris has not had a day of frost for over a year; something that has not been seen since records began in 1873. It is the warmest start to December since 1988 in the Alps.

http://pistehors.com/worst-start-to-...s-23648255.htm