Dry and mild during Christmas week

The turbulent phase in the Alps is over now. On the northern edge, the westerly flow is still quite strong, which is especially noticeable at higher altitudes, but in the vast majority of the Alps it is now a lot calmer again than during the past few days. Moreover, the sun is also getting plenty of space in more and more places. In the coming days, it will remain mild and dry and we do not need to expect any significant precipitation. Only from the weekend onwards, new Atlantic lows could start bringing snow.

Stormy period behind us

So the Alps have had quite a turbulent period. In Austria, a fair amount of snow fell, but the storm meant that it was not noticeable everywhere in the high mountains. Because the air was not of polar origin, the lower regions had to cope with a lot of rain. The snow line was around 1,500 metres for a long time. PA#5 was a tricky one therefore, but still some nice things were possible, as Arnie777 showed in the live picture topic. More experiences (a picture and/or short update in the topic) or trip reports are of course always welcome!

In Switzerland, precipitation amounts were considerably behind. I was already not expecting much precipitation in the western parts, but the rest of the country also received less snow than previously calculated by the models. Meteoschweiz discussed these overestimations of the precipitation in an interesting (german) article.

Rain

Then there was another factor that could throw some spanner in the works for the Northern Alps: rain on Christmas Eve. Yesterday evening and last night the rain then followed with several millimetres. As the mild air had already moved in, the snowline was already quite high. Based on the temperature measurements around this rain phase, I assume a snowfall line around 2,500 metres. In the webcam image above from Obertauern, you can see the substantial rain tracks in the snow cover at 1800 metres.

Persistently dry and mild

In the coming days, temperatures of 5 to 10 degrees at 1500 metres will remain quite warm. We continue to experience a zonal pattern in the Alps with the jet stream lying to the north. Precipitation will stay away and the Alps will be under the influence of warm air. Gliding snow avalanches will therefore return in the coming days. Check out our latest avalanche update.

Only from the weekend onwards does the changeability seem to increase again. A cold front will provide cooling with snow from the west. Possibly the southern Alps will also get some snow, but this is a bit uncertain at the moment. More on this on Wednesday. For now: Merry Christmas everyone!