After sweating it out on the bike last weekend at just under 2000m and 15 degrees, Ullr now suddenly decides to take over the sceptre of the seasons from the sun god Ra and we hurtle from high summer into high winter. The first dump is coming up.
Before we get to the quantities and regions, let's start with something fundamental. The problem is the warm ground, because the possible metres of fresh snow will probably not materialize on the ground despite high precipitation levels and a snow line of 800 to 1000 m suitable for winter. It will simply thaw from below. At the moment, a week of dry cold from Russia would have been better. Anyway, we'll take what we can get. And the coming northern thaw is better than all the northern thaws of last winter. Hooray? Well, only half, because neither many ski resorts are open, nor are the crevasses closed on the glaciers, so it will either be about meadow ski tours (where there really should be 50 to 60 cm on the ground), or about avoiding crevasses on the completely blown glaciers.
In general, possible skiable amounts are coming down from central Switzerland to Upper Austria, with the focus of the dump probably coming from the Arlberg to the east. There is probably 90 to 110 cm of snow here. On the ground, this meter - and I'm not going out on a limb here - will probably not be anywhere: On the glaciers it will be completely blown away in a hurricane and on the meadows it will completely stick together. In the higher forests of the east, it will probably be somewhere between 40 and 60 cm for meadow skiing. In the high Alps, it will be between 0 cm on ice and 3 m behind the edges of the terrain.
West of the Arlberg, there will also be significantly
Lower quantities somewhere between 20 and 70cm down, which will then make about 10-30cm on the ground. If it becomes significantly more, or the ground factor is not so wild, you can add about 20cm to the ground values.
In the case of northern congestion, all other regions will naturally be left empty-handed. Towards the main ridge, the amounts can be reduced somewhat, but due to the strong high-altitude current, some of the amounts should also reach the glaciers.
On Friday, things should be over and you can go and have a look. The biggest amounts even fall until Thursday. If you're looking for powder in the forest, you should also go stalking on Thursday, as the zero degree line will rise steadily towards 2000 m by Friday.
However, as it will be quite warm again by the weekend, with a high zero degree line of just under 3000 m, the fun will be short-lived. Nevertheless, it's great to hear from Ullr again and we're keeping our fingers crossed that he'll be visiting more often this year.
So dust off the shrines, wax the skis, pay homage to Ullr and maybe ring in the season on Thursday or Friday.
Powder to the people!
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