Bergwetter

The Tyrolean meteorologists are more important these days than at any other time of the year: the Hahnenkamm race at the weekend needs to be looked after, with precise forecasts and nowcasting thanks to weather stations set up on the Streif.

Last Saturday was, let's say, the most interesting day in the WeatherBlog's ski instructor career for a long time. Even getting out of the car in the pouring rain proved difficult for the entire team due to a lack of motivation. A few hundred meters up the gondola later, it was still almost as warm and still pouring, to the particular delight of those colleagues whose workplace is located on the magic carpet next to the gondola. Only at around 1800 m, at the top lift in the area, could the precipitation be described as snow with a little good will.

2012 not only ended on a warm note, but was also warmer than average for the year. Over the next few days, the east can look forward to northern congestion before high pressure dominates the weather throughout the Alpine region.

At the end of the week, a cold front brings brief cooling with fresh snow. Possible change in the general weather situation next year.

The dreamy winter weather in the north is coming to an end. A westerly situation brings milder air and snow in the west and south.

On the occasion of the fresh snowfall that Storm Heike is bringing to large parts of the Alps, we take a look at a few subtleties of the precipitation forecast.

The WeatherBlog is back from its summer break and vacation far away to catch up on the weather of the last few weeks and the current conditions.

A brilliant April is coming to an end. Snow down to the valleys and cold, wet, zero-visibility powdery weather are over for now: because midsummer is looming this weekend!

People like to accuse April of not knowing what it wants. In view of the constantly changeable April weather, this seems rather far-fetched to me. I suspect that people generally underestimate the complexity of April's character and that it knows exactly what it doesn't want, namely weeks of cold spells like January or sunshine every morning and a heat storm just in time for afternoon tea like August. April prefers variety, but without too much effort.

City beautification trees lining cycle paths are slowly beginning to blossom and you increasingly cycle through clouds of sweetly scented flowers. In public parks, motivated people fall off their slacklines at every corner, albeit sometimes into dog piles that have only recently emerged from under the snow. More and more often, you hear the words of those who have come to terms with winter: "You really can't complain this winter."

Spring can easily be mistaken for summer at the moment, especially on sweaty ski tours in black Gore-Tex clothing and merino wool underwear, which you only don't tear off and throw into the nearest crevasse because of certain social norms.

As successfully oracled by our colleague Oracle, the seemingly boring disturbance last Sunday and Monday brought a nice refreshment, at least in the north and west. It is now clearly spring again and is developing increasingly summery characteristics until the still uncertain weekend.