It’s snowing heavily east of Salzburg. You can expect 20-50 cm of fresh snow in the Salzburgerland, Styria and Ober- and Niederösterreich. It’s worth sending out a PowderAlert, but with conditions. The Big Change that should happen on the 3rd of January is still visible on the maps. Winter will make its comeback. In this forecast:
- Lots of snowfall (and wind) in the eastern Alps
- PA #3 with conditions
- The Big Change on the 3rd of January
Lots of snowfall (and wind) in the eastern Alps
It’s snowing heavily in the east of Austria since last night. There are strong winds above the treeline that transport lots of snow. Locally between 20-40 cm of snow came down and you can expect more snow till Thursday morning.
When you have a look at the webcams, you can see that it’s snowing east and south of Salzburg, but that there’s also a lot of wind.
PA #3 with conditions
The new snow will settle on an old hard snow layer, but sometimes on snow crystals without any sort of cohesion. In addition, there is not even a base below 1500 meters in a lot of resorts. Add the strong wind and you understand that this shouldn’t be called a PowderAlert. So… Why? Well, if you know the resorts by heart there is definitely some powder to be found on Thursday. But if you don’t have any idea of the risks you’d better stay on the slopes. Get up early and ride some fresh snow on the slopes. Simple as that. The fact that there’s no base means branches and rocks are still close to the surface and those nasty things can injure you when you hit them. Above the treeline the wind is a trouble maker. It transports a lot of snow and is the creator of avalanches. If you want to ride off-piste, but you don’t have the knowledge, go out with a mountain guide!
This third PowderAlert with a lot of conditions is for this region: northern Alps east
The Big Change on the 3rd of January
Check out the forecast from yesterday for the details. In short: there’s a chance on a storm from the west (snow for France) or a storm from the north (snow for the northern Alps) in the beginning of 2017. The good news is that it is still visible on the maps. It will be exciting to see what part of the Alps will get the most snow. The maps are hinting on a storm from the north right now, but a slight change in the path of the jet stream can change everything. The coming days will be decisive.
We just have to wait and see what will happen. The dream scenario is a storm from the west that transforms into a storm from the north. Let’s hope that will happen.
Stay stoked. Morris