Lars Oelmann

Somewhat belatedly, the oracle looks into his crystal ball and sees fresh snow for the northern slopes of the Alps. Ullr has finally finished his Christmas vacation and pushes this annoying warm high into the orcus. It has already started to snow from the northwest and won't stop until Saturday morning.

Ullr has a heart for the East and before it gets really warm for a few days, he really covers the almost Polish-Russian areas of the Eastern Alps.

The westerly drift is still alive and kicking and is once again providing us with a usable gliding surface!

Beaucoup de Neige! Snow in the west but the heat is becoming critical.

At last Ullr is listening to the envious deep snow divers east of the Arlberg, because they haven't exactly been spoiled with dumps so far, so now the cornucopia is also being poured out in the east of Felix Austria.

As announced, here is the Thursday update. The predicted amounts of 70-100 cm have already fallen across the board and, especially in eastern Switzerland, in some cases significantly more than the 50-70 cm with the 20 cm bonus, because interestingly there was no border through central Switzerland to the main precipitation areas in the west, which is probably due to the model orography, in which the east is simulated to be less high. Even the 120 cm have become full here and there outside of France.

Most people have noticed that winter is here. The mainstream and the media are also rediscovering snow and cold weather. And while the weather nerds are still debating whether this is real winter in Pusemuckel and Schloss Holte Stutenbrock (this place exists!) in the North German Plain and would rather have the horror winter of 10/11 (Oh God, no!), we ask ourselves: Uh, early December and third alarm.... Wasn't there something? That's right! We have a deja vue, because what's more important for us freeriders is that this week we're already seeing another intense north-westerly storm - just like 2011, only colder! So you've been good enough to light candles in the Ullrschrein! Very good.

Our Italian low has made its way north as a Vb low and is currently causing chaos in southern Germany – and is also bringing snow to the northern side of the Alps.

The first dump is the sweetest, although hopefully not the deepest, because let's assume that, analogous to "the first cut is the deepest", the first dump will not also be the deepest. But you could say that the first real snowfall of the season is the one that causes the most excitement and anticipation, because it's finally starting properly.

The low pressure system that is making this weekend so inhospitable will really get going from today (15.4.2012) and in the south of the Upper Valais / in the Aosta Valley, – where there has already been over 30cm – there will be some more. But, and this is more interesting for most people now, it's also snowing where it's based, namely in the north. The direction of flow is slowly changing and by the evening it will have turned from east to northeast and then the flow may even turn to north.

After I only missed the last snowfall because I was away from the internet, here is a new alert (editor's note: we will be taking strict precautions to prevent the oracle from being away from the internet in future).

Some resourceful students with too much time on their hands and online access to a precipitation radar may have already noticed: it's snowing again. (Everyone else can't use it anyway). They will also have noticed with surprise: It's snowing, but not in the north for once.