Arktis

The recent snowfall in the northern Alps will now be followed by a phase of high pressure with calm, mostly sunny weather. Fresh snow is only expected in the mountains of southern Europe for the time being. We are also taking a look at the North Pole this week, inspired by a user question.

The WeatherBlog joins the long list of annual reviews. It has been clear for some time that 2014 will go down in history as a very warm year. In Austria, there has not been a year with a higher average annual temperature since measurements began in 1768, and 2014 will most likely be the warmest year worldwide since 1880 (Austrian monks started measuring weather data earlier than many others).

Question from Tobi: A meteorologist, who is one of the more forecast-minded types, once told me that the stable weather conditions, i.e. good for a long time or bad for a long time (it's always a question of perspective, of course), have increased significantly. This is also in line with my personal perception, although you can be very wrong. Are there any empirical findings on this or what do you think about the trend?

The WeatherBlog has been asked to explain why winter is "broken". We could go on for a while about what exactly "broken" means - broken in comparison to climatological averages or only in my subjective perception? Broken in general or just on my local mountain? And anyway, meteorologically speaking, it's only been winter for 3 days, so how are you supposed to know if something is broken? But we're not like that ...