Alpen

After the respectable onset of winter last week, things are now continuing rather cautiously. A cold front will reach the northern Alps on Thursday, bringing a few more centimetres of fresh snow. High pressure returns at the weekend. This WeatherBlog is a joint effort by Sebastian and Lea!

The Alpine Forum was divided into three thematic blocks, whereby we were primarily interested in thematic blocks one and two: "What has changed in the mountains?" & "Mountain professionals: consequences in everyday working life and training?". We also got hold of the analyse:berg issues and would like to give a brief overview of selected content here.

The dry autumn with late summer flair in the golden larch forests and south-facing rock faces is coming to an end, and Ullr is sending us winter greetings for the second time. During the first greeting in mid-September, the first turns were already enjoyed, but the snow did not last. This second greeting hopefully heralds the start of winter, and we can start the PowderAlert series with snow height betting games as usual and bet on a strong winter.

The weather is going crazy and leeward cyclone Anett has caused chaos in many regions with large amounts of precipitation (a more detailed analysis in weather blog #1 2024/25). It brought an early onset of winter to the Alps at higher altitudes and even below 1500 metres. Even if the beloved snow is just melting again, the start of winter cannot be stopped. Here is an overview of the ski resorts that are the first to open.

It feels like we've only blinked once and the season is already over. But so much has happened and it's been great. The start in December was brilliant, hopes were high for an exceptional season - but the weather and winter had its own plans. From Christmas onwards, the Alps were hit by unusually mild temperatures, which continued throughout the winter. It was a season full of highs and lows - literally. Because while we were looking forward to the powder days, the snow cover retreated regrettably early to well over 1500 m altitude, and the touring options were massively restricted, especially at lower altitudes. But spring was kind to us, bringing back the winter for a good ten days in April and providing good conditions for the alpine touring season.

Only a financial rescue package totalling 95 million euros can create the conditions for Austria's Alpine Associations to continue to preserve mountain huts and and hiking trails for all mountain recreationists.

Dear readers, another season is drawing to a close, editorial content has already become scarcer in the last two weeks and the PowderGuide editorial team is slowly going into summer hibernation. And yet this year is different than usual! For the first time, our weather service is NOT taking a summer break! And of course neither is the development team...

A short while ago we were water-skiing or riding bikes, and now, at the end of April, we suddenly find ourselves in winter. How could this have happened? It's cold throughout the Alps and it's snowing quite a lot, especially on the northern slopes. If you really missed it, 2 PowderAlarms and rows of 4-star ConditionsReports should be enough proof. Powder skis should be the first choice up to and including the weekend!

The weather can be summarised as follows at the moment: Before the summer is after the summer is before the summer and sometimes it snows. At the moment we're in a "it's snowing again" phase. Tomorrow summer will return.

Foehn storms in the north, metres of fresh snow at (very) high altitudes in the south, record temperatures followed by a sharp drop in temperature with a cold front: the last few days have been quite something. The weather has now calmed down somewhat. The next, much weaker southerly foehn is on the horizon for the weekend, probably with summer heat and no precipitation.

Our colleague Orakel has already announced it: The südstau is back and the next few days will be turbulent. The traditional Easter snowfall will only fall as snow at very high altitudes on the main ridge and south of it. Otherwise there will be rain and foehn winds with very high temperatures.

A lot is falling from the sky again across the Alps at the weekend, and at least in high Alpine locations you can expect the snow conditions to improve and some powder. Winter is far from over, as there will also be precipitation next week. For lovers of apocalyptic news, we also have the finest entertainment, the Atlantic is boiling over!