Lea Hartl

After a long break, the PowderOracle has brought us good news. Maybe there will even be another alarm at the weekend? Thanks to a strong north-westerly current, the next few days will be pretty wintry and at least the north will gradually get a base layer in mid-altitudes too! Also: New glacier study with predictably bad news for the ice in the Alps.

The air that currently surrounds us was over the Azores just a few days ago. You can feel connected to distant parts of the world, imagine you can smell the sea and ponder the beauty in the complexity of atmospheric movement as you glide down into the valley on Alpine artificial snow bands. You don't have to, of course, but the WeatherBlog tries to adopt a relaxed attitude in view of the turn of the year and not fret about the weather.

A user question has reached the WeatherBlog: How many days per winter is there snow in Obergurgl? Where can you find data on this? We are always happy to receive questions and especially those that we can answer to some extent! The weather is not very Christmassy, with little snow and too warm, so we prefer to think about other things and today we are looking at weather data from Obergurgl.

An air mass boundary is keeping us busy today. The cold air of the last few days is slowly giving way to warmer air masses from the south. This will lead to dangerous black ice on the roads on the northern edge of the Alps. Apart from that, the borderline weather situation will initially bring some precipitation in the north and then a change to foehn-like, milder weather.

The outlook is turbulent. On the one hand, seasonal shopping, baking cookies, vacation planning, family management and the like are on the agenda. On the other hand, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a seasonal polar vortex and what this means for our winter weather! Summary of the next few days: stormy south föhn, colder from the weekend and snow from the N-NW.

What experienced skiers could more or less reliably glean from the text of the bulletin is now put into concrete figures. From this season onwards, the SLF will use three intermediate levels for the avalanche danger levels moderate, considerable, large and very large. For level 3, for example, a 3, 3= or 3+ is given in addition to the "whole" level (3, considerable). 3- is closer to 2, 3= is "neutral" and 3+ is closer to 4.

The WeatherBlog has not yet decided whether winter has really begun. But to be on the safe side, we'll give you a brief overview. At least visually, it's relatively wintry from about 1000m upwards. A north-westerly current will bring new, small disturbances and a few showers today (Thursday) until Saturday. Sunday looks very sunny, then it will become more changeable again.

We haven't really started the WeatherBlog season yet, but we'll take a quick look. The reason for this is winter, which is also popping in for a quick look, but then unfortunately turns around and goes back to sleep. It will snow heavily over the next few days, especially on the southern main ridge. There is less in the north, but here too the snow line is dropping towards 1000m.

Despite the relatively cold Easter days, we are taking big steps towards summer. The PowderGuide weather is also approaching the summer break and we will soon discontinue the usual weather service. If it does get wintry again, the WeatherBlog will report on a case-by-case basis.

The forecast for the Easter weekend is still quite uncertain, but at the moment it looks like calm, rather cool weather. The current southerly flow (partly with Saharan dust again) is expected to end on Friday with a cold front. This will be followed by a north-easterly flow with cooler temperatures.

After the dry, dusty March, the unsettled April weather is a relief, at least according to the WeatherBlog. Finally something is happening again! In the last few days, with fresh snow and low temperatures, there has even been a real winter feeling, even if the base unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired. It will continue to be changeable and stormy until the weekend, then the weather should calm down.

You come home after a ski tour, your clothes are damp, you're shivering and you jump into the shower. The question then quickly arises: What are we going to eat?