Winter shortly returned to the Austrian mountains last weekend (click here for pictures). And with the snow, colder temperatures returned as well. According to the ZAMG, it has not been that cold in Austria since 1998 with temperatures below zero in a number of valleys. The temperatures dropped below zero in St. Jakob im Defereggental (-0.9 ° C), Mariapfarr (-0.6 ° C) and St. Michael im Lungau (-0.3 ° C) in the night.
Locally up to 40 cm of fresh snow (Hohen Tauern) came down and that is special too. The last time there was so much snow in August was in August 2010. It wasn’t a record, because 72 centimeters came down in the Hohen Tauern at the end of August in 1998.
It was pretty special that there was snow in the valleys of Bad Gastein and St. Jakob im Defereggental. There was a closed snow cover on Sunday morning. Something that has never happened in these valleys since the start of measurements in 1948. Snow has previously been measured below 1,400 meters in the valleys of Hochfilzen (August 2010, 3 centimeters), Schröcken (August 2005, 5cm) and in Ramsau, Langen and Nauders (August 1995, 4-7 centimeters), but never in Bad Gastein and St. Jakob im Defereggental in August. And so the first signs of winter resulted in a nice record, but mostly beautiful images.
But to put the cold in perspective, despite the first signs of winter, summer 2018 is on its way to a top 5 ranking of the warmest summers since 1766 in Austria. (source)