Alpen

A strong Azores high will bring a northerly flow to the Alpine region. This will bring wintry temperatures and precipitation. Where exactly the latter will end up is still somewhat uncertain.

When you're on a roll, why stop, thinks Ullr and sends several dumps from the southwest towards the Alps. What does that mean? It snows again exactly where there is already a lot of snow and the north gets nothing or at least virtually nothing in the west of Switzerland. The first wave starts tonight (Thursday) and ends Friday night. The second wave starts on Saturday afternoon and lasts until Tuesday.

Counter-current system? What is that? Without poaching too much into WeatherBlog territory, I'll say this: the countercurrent system is Ullr's way of bringing his faithful powder in exciting quantities without much wind (at least in the center) by letting two air masses make love over the Alps.

The general weather situation and the associated weather remains unchanged, at least for the time being. A change is in the offing at the beginning of next week. What exactly it will bring, however, is uncertain.

The new PowderAlert is due and there's powder again. This time again in the south and west. However, the amounts will be significantly lower than the Christmas alert and won't break any records. But it should be enough for the odd face shot. Once again, Ullr has no sympathy for the northern side of the Alps and first sends the Föhn ahead of it, only to add cosmetic snowfall again. In the far north and northeast, the cosmetic snowfall may be completely absent (east of Innbruck too). The dump starts on January 4th, ends on the 5th and the fresh snow is already fried by the sun on the 6th almost everywhere except for high northern slopes in the south.

The WeatherBlog was inspired by the ski instructor today and is in a bad mood, so just a brief overview:

The permanent high that has accompanied us for so long is increasingly weakening, while a powerful low near Iceland is becoming stronger and stronger, bringing very stormy holidays to parts of northern Europe. Between this Atlantic low and the remnants of the high over the continent, the Alps are caught in a south-westerly flow that brings mild, sometimes damp weather.

A Mediterranean low brings a base to the south, while the north hopes that even small animals make dung.

It's not winter yet, neither in meteorological nor in calendar terms. Nor is there much snow yet. Nevertheless, with the unconditional cheerfulness of the annually greeting marmot, it has been suggested for a few weeks now that something is ready. Online portals that have gone into summer hibernation are waking up again, the glaciers are filling up with ski clubs from central Germany, and if you believe the tracks in the off-piste terrain, which is sometimes really difficult, then even the average freerider seems to be blessed with a surplus of pre-season motivation.

I've been snowboarding for 20 years. And for the past six years, I have been fascinated by deep snow skiing. I still remember the first descent in waist-deep powder - and I remember the enormous muscle ache the days after almost as well. But what remained was an addiction to the feeling of silence and solitude in untouched nature: to the adrenaline and happiness of "floating through the snow".

Anyone who, like the WeatherBlog, was traveling on Alpine highways at dusk yesterday may have admired the borderline kitschy lighting mood: A full moon hanging low in front of a soft pastel-colored sky, with glowing mountains beside it.

The general weather situation discussed in the last blog has not changed significantly. A strong high over Scandinavia is blocking the westerly wind drift across the Atlantic, allowing cold air from the north-east to penetrate far into Central Europe. Low pressure systems are forced to move into the Mediterranean region and pass south of the Alps.