Lea Hartl

With double-digit temperatures and plenty of sunshine, February now feels a lot like spring. Only there's usually more snow in spring... The next few days will finally see some movement in the weather. Large amounts of snow are not in sight, but it will at least be wetter again and the chances of a small refresh are increasing.

After a few turbulent days with lots of fresh snow, the sun is back for the time being. The view of the general weather situation - currently and in the crystal ball - is not very wintry and the WeatherBlog is a little bored.

The Masao 3 in 1 Glove consists of a thickly insulated outer glove and a thin liner. The overall package is a fairly warm glove for the usual winter applications. The liner is suitable for fine motorised activities such as operating touchscreens.

The oracle has already announced the key points: The coming days will bring heavy north-westerly accumulation with lots of fresh snow and wind. In terms of snowfall, the eastern Alps (from around Arlberg) look better than the west. A look at the large-scale structures explains why this is the case!

Temperatures remain wintry for the time being. There is fresh snow here and there in not very abundant quantities. Overall, the snow conditions still leave a lot to be desired, although the snow quality is often relatively good at the moment thanks to the low temperatures. The wind could have a say in this over the next few days, but the situation will remain more or less as it is, at least until the weekend.

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.