Lea Hartl

It's getting dark quite early again, columns of cars are rolling up the valleys, the season ticket sales are over in many places, sports stores are advertising the latest developments in carving, Facebook contacts are posting smileys and snowflakes – the evidence points to the approach of winter. The WeatherBlog has spent the summer break watching TV and knows that on CSI, at least 2 perpetrators are convicted every week with circumstantial evidence. So it's high time to get to work and track down winter.

At least I haven't missed too much skiing in the last few weeks. The snow is disappearing into the highest mountains, only the lifts are still running on the glaciers and even those will soon be closed – others may be annoyed, but when you're sitting at home waiting for broken bones to grow back together, the miserable snow conditions are a small, albeit uncooperative, consolation.

At least I haven't missed too much skiing in the last few weeks. The snow is disappearing into the highest mountains, only the lifts are still running on the glaciers and even those will soon be closed – others may be annoyed, but when you're sitting at home waiting for broken bones to grow back together, the miserable snow conditions are a small, albeit uncooperative, consolation.

Glaciology is a specialty of meteorology. Glaciologists go to "their" glaciers twice a year and dig holes in order to later determine the mass balance. To do this, they need helpers, usually students, who lend a hand with digging and carrying various pieces of equipment.

A summer day in the meteorological sense is a day on which the maximum daily temperature is 25°C or more. Last Sunday, April 3, was a summer day in Innsbruck with over 26°C. You can literally watch the snow melt, – the summer air licks the white off the mountains.

Meteorologists, at least those who are interested in weather forecasting, usually have a favorite topic. There are, for example, the foehn fanatics and the high fog lovers. What they all have in common is that they don't like boring weather.

The Contour cut-to-size coat is an inconspicuous candidate. Classically equipped, it seems to be a good compromise between price, performance and durability.

Monday of this week, March 21, was Poetry Day, proclaimed by the UN. Tuesday was World Water Day and Thursday is World Tuberculosis Day and the "International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims". Between water and tuberculosis and the right to truth lies World Meteorology Day, which took place on Wednesday, March 23. The day has a specific theme every year, and this year's is "Climate for you". I think that's great, so I'm going to write to the WMO and make a few requests. If there is already a "climate for us", it should also be useful.

The past few days in the northern Alps have been characterized by sunshine and foehn winds. Low pressure system Yvan slowly moved from the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean and provided the southerly flow that brought us gale-force gusts last weekend. Wind speeds of 140 km/h were measured on the Patscherkofel on Saturday (12.3), 115 km/h on the Zugspitze and an impressive 104 km/h in Innsbruck city center (station at the university).

Life without the internet is inevitably relaxed. If the only weather forecast option is a more or less attractive lady on TV who moves clouds and suns around on a vague map outline and comments on the whole thing in a foreign language, then you just get up in the morning and look out of the window.

After a fantastic powder day on Thursday last week (16.12.), we had slightly frozen noses and a little toe that didn't really want to thaw out. On Friday, a chairlift acquaintance complained bitterly about the weather in general and the snow in particular, saying it couldn't be that it had been snowing for three weeks and the wife at home in Germany had to clear the snow again. In fact, this is already the second ski vacation where the sun never shines and it is also far too cold and in future he would stay at home?

Last week finally brought the long-awaited onset of winter in the north. While the base in the south grew with every Italian low, the northern Alps have lagged far behind. All the more pleasing now is the abundant northern accumulation: on Saturday (11.12.), a warm front nestling lovingly against the Alps brought up to half a meter of fresh snow in the (eastern) northern Alps, in addition to the starter that fell the day before.