There are some pretty heavy winds in the Alps and… it’s also snowing from time to time. As expected, the wind is the biggest dealbraker today, but it was quite okay yesterday. If my forecast from yesterday is right, than Monday should be a good day on the Austrian glaciers as well. And Tuesday might be pretty good as well, but more about that tomorrow. In this forecast:
- Saturday was good
- Heavy wind today
- More sun from Monday
- More snowfall next weekend?
Saturday was good
Saturday was a good day. After the passage of the cold front on Friday, the wind wasn’t that strong anymore and it was snowing in the night to Saturday. That provided excellent conditions on the Austrian glacier slopes, especially because the sun was coming out and the sky was blue. Nothing special about the snow, just a nice day this early in the season. Below a photo of the Stubaier glacier on Saturday morning:
^What is a northern Stau, If you want to know more about this weather phenomenon, check out this article.
Heavy wind today
Sunday wasn’t as good as Saturday. The morning began gray and the warm air that was still around resulted in a high snow line. And there were some heavy winds. All the snow that came down on Saturday was transported to other parts of the mountain and the wind made it practically impossible tob ski or snowboard. Check out the data from the weather station on the glacier of Kaprun (on this page you will find all weather stations near the Kitzsteinhorn in the right column) how the weather was shifting back and forth the last 72 hours. Especially the gusts of wind were pretty extreme.
The cold front arrived in the course of Sunday afternoon and the snow line dropped to around 1000 meters. The wind is still pretty strong in the high alpine. The valleys can expect some sno today, but the snow will come down horizontally in the high alpine. The wind will come down in the night to Monday, but it won’t snow that hard anymore either. Check out the incoming front on Sunday afternoon and our 850 hPa map. It’s nice to see how the blue bubble of cold air finds its way to the Alps. Tip: ** Go to our forecast page, click on the 850 hPa temperature map and press the play button (the button on the bottom-left, wepowder pro only) and you’ll see the cold front coming in. **
More sun from Monday
The sun will come out on Monday. There will still be some heavy winds in the east of Austria and you can expect some last precipitation, but the weather will calm down thanks to a high-pressure area coming in from the west. The clouds slowly dissolve and the sun returns to the top of the mountains. According to the latest calculations, this will last until the end of this week.
More snowfall next weekend?
By the end of the week I’ll return to the two scenarios that were already mentioned on Friday:
- Status quo: high pressure will remain dominant and there are only chances of snow in the eastern parts of Austria
- Breakthrough from the northwest: a storm depression will find its way to the Alps via the North Sea and France and Germany
It’s a real status quo until the end of this week. High pressure is persistent and keeps snow at a distance. Our snow maps show little snow until Friday. But wepowder Pro members will see some bright colors on the snow maps and that’s an indication that the models see some changes. The good news today is that all the models see this change and that those colors on our snow maps may become a reality.
Stay stoked,
Morris