Bergwetter

It is currently becoming clear how little sense the idea of "good" and "bad" weather makes. If you have too much of one, it soon becomes the other. The extremely dry November is increasing the risk of forest fires, particulate matter concentrations in the basins are reaching record levels and, unsurprisingly, almost all ski resorts without glaciers are postponing their openings. Some weather stations in the Alps will probably end November with 0.0 mm of precipitation.

In short: we were, are and will remain under the influence of a persistent high. The sun is shining in the mountains, while the lowlands are often covered in fog or high mist.

The tropics are known to be the regions of the world where you can lie on white sandy beaches all year round and retreat to the shade of palm trees when the heat is on its way. If you need more specific information for your GPS, you can find them between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Occasionally, however, it can get pretty uncomfortable in the tropics, depending on the area, a hurricane, typhoon or a simple tropical storm can ruin your beach vacation. If you don't care about that sort of thing and prefer a down-to-earth drizzle, you can go swimming in the Mediterranean with peace of mind.

It's getting dark quite early again, columns of cars are rolling up the valleys, the season ticket sales are over in many places, sports stores are advertising the latest developments in carving, Facebook contacts are posting smileys and snowflakes – the evidence points to the approach of winter. The WeatherBlog has spent the summer break watching TV and knows that on CSI, at least 2 perpetrators are convicted every week with circumstantial evidence. So it's high time to get to work and track down winter.

Now that the snow from two weeks ago, as predicted in the first alert, is hardly present below 2300 m, some more is coming: from France via the Vaud Alps to the Arlberg, around 20-30 cm will accumulate, as there is no real accumulation and the front is only moving across the Alps.

Just in time for the first significant snowfall of the still young 2011/2012 winter season, the PowderGuide team presents a new editorial addition and completes the PG weather service: The PowderAlert appears before significant new snowfall and forecasts when, where and how the snow will fall and where you have the best chance of good snow. The experienced amateur meteorologist and powder snow enthusiast Lars Oelmann presents the first PowderAlert for the period from October 8, 2011.

Meteorologists, at least those who are interested in weather forecasting, usually have a favorite topic. There are, for example, the foehn fanatics and the high fog lovers. What they all have in common is that they don't like boring weather.

Monday of this week, March 21, was Poetry Day, proclaimed by the UN. Tuesday was World Water Day and Thursday is World Tuberculosis Day and the "International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims". Between water and tuberculosis and the right to truth lies World Meteorology Day, which took place on Wednesday, March 23. The day has a specific theme every year, and this year's is "Climate for you". I think that's great, so I'm going to write to the WMO and make a few requests. If there is already a "climate for us", it should also be useful.

The past few days in the northern Alps have been characterized by sunshine and foehn winds. Low pressure system Yvan slowly moved from the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean and provided the southerly flow that brought us gale-force gusts last weekend. Wind speeds of 140 km/h were measured on the Patscherkofel on Saturday (12.3), 115 km/h on the Zugspitze and an impressive 104 km/h in Innsbruck city center (station at the university).

Life without the internet is inevitably relaxed. If the only weather forecast option is a more or less attractive lady on TV who moves clouds and suns around on a vague map outline and comments on the whole thing in a foreign language, then you just get up in the morning and look out of the window.

Last week finally brought the long-awaited onset of winter in the north. While the base in the south grew with every Italian low, the northern Alps have lagged far behind. All the more pleasing now is the abundant northern accumulation: on Saturday (11.12.), a warm front nestling lovingly against the Alps brought up to half a meter of fresh snow in the (eastern) northern Alps, in addition to the starter that fell the day before.

Last weekend was probably an absolute early winter highlight for many freeriders. Saturday (4.12.) was sunny and cold across the board – and a bit of fresh snow on a soft base made for excellent conditions. At around 2000 m near Innsbruck, it was minus 16° C on Saturday and even during the extra speedy ascent, fingers and toes didn't really want to thaw out. The descent was of course more than worth the effort, which is why we were back in the same area on Sunday. But in completely different conditions: A few layers of clothing already fell off during the first short ascent in the morning. The thermometer confirmed our sweating, at -4° it was a whole 12° warmer in the same place than the day before.