Lea Hartl

The period of southern storms is over and this week we are dealing with slightly early April weather. A mix of sun and clouds and a few showers here and there characterize the picture. Winter might make a comeback over the weekend!

Two PowderAlerts after a long drought! And at least in parts of the Alps, it's continuing to be reasonably wintry! The south in particular is benefiting from a relatively stationary area of low pressure that lies diagonally over Spain and France and is repeatedly producing südstau this week. In the north (east), the amounts remain lower and will not significantly improve the snow conditions, but will hopefully at least alleviate the acute risk of forest fires.

Frank Techel is an avalanche forecaster and researcher at the SLF. He deals with the integration of models into operational avalanche forecasting and believes that there is great potential to improve avalanche warning when humans and machines work together. In the interview, he explains how "AI" supports the human SLF team in producing the bulletin and where the limits of the models lie.

My colleague Sebastian dedicated last week's WetterBlog to the new PG weather, because of course it deserves such a dedication and because he didn't just want to "whine about the weather forecast". I, on the other hand, love to moan and have no inhibitions about doing so for both of us this week!

The warm, slightly foehny bluebird weather of the last few days has been replaced by overcast skies and even a few snowflakes here and there. Overall, however, the weather situation in the Alps still falls into the category of boring, dull weather.

Fresh snow, storms, high avalanche risk in places - winter was barely declared dead before it was back, at least for a few days. Thanks to the fresh snow of the last few days, the snow depth on the main Swiss ridge is approaching the average again, but without replenishment and with settling, it won't stay that way for long. If you can, you should enjoy the snow with due caution while winter is still within reach.

Apart from a short, unspectacular break today (Wednesday), there will be plenty of sunshine and little chance of fresh snow for the time being. It will become increasingly milder at higher altitudes over the next few days, while the cold air will linger in the valleys.

Cheers to the New Year! The Christmas period of high pressure is coming to an end and 2025 will bring a change in the weather - it's about time! A cold front will bring some variety and even a bit of precipitation from tomorrow. The outlook for the coming week is still very uncertain. Depending on the mood of the Azores High, the options range from mild westerly weather to an Atlantic block with an outbreak of cold air over Central Europe.

Before we head towards the Christmas snow, let's take a look at the large-scale pressure patterns that spin over the world's oceans and control our weather: The polar vortex currently has two distinct cold poles. One lies over eastern Siberia and the North Pacific. The other extends roughly from Newfoundland via Greenland to the Barents Sea and is responsible for a strong westerly current over the Atlantic, which has been bringing us "new weather" every few days for a while now.

As we all know, the WetterBlog likes when things are happening in the weather kitchen and suffers from acute boredom bordering on anxiety if the weather stays the same for too long. We are therefore pleasedto announce: Something is happening! The next few days offer (almost) everything that Alpine weather can do.

After the respectable onset of winter last week, things are now continuing rather cautiously. A cold front reaches the northern Alps on Thursday and brings a few centimetres of fresh snow. High pressure returns at the weekend. This weather blog is a joint effort by Sebastian and Lea!

The WeatherBlog is taking a summer break, unless there's another onset of winter with corresponding blog inspiration in between. Over the next few days, the south-west will be in full swing again - there would probably be a PowderAlert if our oracle wasn't already in summer mode.