Lea Hartl

After some snow at the weekend, winter is visually recognizable again in the Northern Alps, although the base still leaves a lot to be desired. Some measuring stations are scratching the record minimum for the time of year. At least it's snowing in the south this week and maybe next week too!

After around two weeks of fairly low temperatures, it will become milder again over the next few days. The cold air masses that have migrated to us from Arctic latitudes have moved eastwards and the high-altitude current is turning to westerly to south-westerly directions. After fresh snow in the north followed by considerable icy weather, the medium-term signs are now pointing to Föhn and südstau.

The lucky ConditionsReporters who made it to Piedmont, spoiled by PowderAlerts, can enjoy friendly touring weather over the next few days. For the rest of the Alps, it will be a little more unstable. Particularly in the east, the general development and especially the precipitation options are not yet easy to assess thanks to the indecisive development of low pressure and a fickle air mass boundary.

Every year, we and all the Christmas tourists are waiting in the wings, but the weather isn't really cooperating. The foggy areas in the foothills of the Alps are probably the most wintery at the moment. In the mountains, the sun is shining and temperatures are climbing into the double digits with the influence of föhn winds.

As my colleagues predicted last week, all that's left for me this week is the meteorological start of winter and tough, snow-unfriendly weather conditions. For the time being, we'll have to make do with what's left of the first snow of the season and what the snow cannons are still producing.

The cool, sunny spring weather will increasingly turn into summer temperatures with the onset of the Föhn wind. A late onset of winter is not in sight, but at least some precipitation is possible in the south after the long sunny spell.

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.

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

The warm, slightly foehn-like Kaiser 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.