Lea Hartl

After the labyrinthine social distancing lift queuing system had brought us together by chance and we had taken our seats as far apart from each other as possible in the four-seater chair, my lift colleague mumbled through his FFP2 mask: "A temperature like in winter!"

There has still been little change to the large-scale constellation of high and low pressure centers. The Atlantic current is blocked by a strong high and its continental counterpart is located over Russia. The low-pressure complex that has been keeping us busy in the Alps for some time is neither advancing nor can it be replaced by new lows from the west.

The new year is young and many hopes are still pinned on 2021. May it be better than 2020, more normal, less characterized by uncertainty. Twitter memes and feature articles look back with disgust and forward with optimism and cynicism in equal measure, spurred on by the turn of the year, which may only be one night among many, but is nevertheless highly symbolic if you are looking for a reason to leave the past behind.

After the südstau is before the südstau, or: To those who have, shall be given. The Christmas pattern is repeating itself and a calmer phase today and tomorrow will be followed by the next stormy southerly situation on New Year's Day. The focus of the precipitation will once again be in the south-east and we are once again waiting for a report from the oracle with further details.

Good news for the Northern Alps! The Christmas thaw is still raging at the moment, but from Thursday evening it will get colder from the north with snow down to low altitudes. Presumably, a Christmas alarm will go out in the northern congested areas. We are eagerly awaiting a message from the oracle!

Sebastian, the curator of the Videos of the Week, is unfortunately unable to make it this time, so Lea has come up with a few video recommendations at short notice. It's a pretty mixed selection, but that's the way it is when the substitute has to step in! We start with a lecture on behavioral economics and avalanches, then turn our attention to the snowpack, then back to the human factor and finally to the best (?) of all ascent aids.

The more southerly parts of the Alps up to the main ridge and a little beyond now have a decent base after the extreme southerly dust, while the northern Alps still have to wait. The different conditions can also be seen in the CRs at the moment: In the south and southwest, powder is great, while in northern Salzburger Land a reporter has to make do with ski tours on frozen fields, slightly sugared.

The influence of low pressure will remain until the weekend. It will continue to flake here and there, but the extreme snowfall - more on this in the current alert - will come to an end. This is a good thing for the core areas of the southern congestion.

The weather uniformity of sun and high fog is coming to an end! There is potential for large amounts of precipitation in the südstau from Friday. The northern Alps will also get a few flakes here and there, but it's more likely to be the Föhn that will shape the snow cover at the weekend.

In line with the still not at all wintry weather situation, the weather services of Germany, Austria and Switzerland have stated in a joint press release that winters are becoming milder and that there is less and less snow, especially at low altitudes. Rising temperatures mean that proportionately more winter precipitation is falling than rain.

Greetings, dear WeatherBlog readers! We are starting the season, despite high pressure and the corona crisis, because: Weather always works. And at some point, the weather will change again and so will the lockdown situation. And then you want to be well prepared! The other PowderGuide weather services (fresh snow forecast, PowderMap) will be switched on when it looks a bit more wintry.

Peter Höller, avalanche expert at the BFW in Innsbruck, has analyzed accident statistics from the Austrian Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety. He found that fatal avalanches in the variant area close to ski resorts are often due to new and drift snow problems, while there are proportionately more fatal accidents on classic ski tours with old snow problems.