Groundhog Day

After the wintry, more or less snowy interlude of the last few days, high pressure is now increasingly asserting itself again. There is still a bit of fluff in the southwest, but the remnants of the disturbances will quickly disappear. We are falling back into the pattern of the previous winter: Atlantic block, cold air from the east, unusually warm Arctic Ocean.

Just a few days ago, the Alps were still in a mild, westerly flow. There was precipitation, but unfortunately not in the right state of aggregation for the most part. What has changed?

The woodchuck (Marmota Monax), like the well-known alpine marmot (Marmota Marmota), belongs to the genus Marmota (Marmota), tribe Marmotini (true ground squirrels), family Sciuridae (squirrels), order Rodentia (rodents). In English, Marmota Monax is called a woodchuck, which has raised the important question since time immemorial: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?