Kaltfront

Over the past few days, the weather in the Alpine region has been dominated by a strong westerly current produced by a low over northern Europe and a high in the south. The high in the south was strong enough to steer most of the disturbances north of the Alps. It was warm and sunny in Austria and Bavaria, while it poured down in northern Germany, which is at least a little less summery.

New dump, old neighborhood. Ullr does the triple and sends another dump to the south. This time a cold front follows, so a few flakes may also fall in the north.

"On Sunday (refers to the week before last [5.1.14]) it snowed wet in the south, in some places up to over 2000 m, and after a starry night, dry powder was also to be found much lower down on Monday. (...) I've been thinking about a build-up transformation of the wet fresh snow. Is that conceivable?"

After the first powder days of winter 2013/14 and high-pressure weather, the weather will become more unstable again at the weekend.

It's not winter yet, neither in meteorological nor in calendar terms. Nor is there much snow yet. Nevertheless, with the unconditional cheerfulness of the annually greeting marmot, it has been suggested for a few weeks now that something is ready. Online portals that have gone into summer hibernation are waking up again, the glaciers are filling up with ski clubs from central Germany, and if you believe the tracks in the off-piste terrain, which is sometimes really difficult, then even the average freerider seems to be blessed with a surplus of pre-season motivation.

After a rather chilly spring, it has suddenly become summer in the last few days. You can tell by the pale extremities that our fellow human beings are showing off as they stroll through the city, by the pigeons and couples playing turtle and, last but not least, by the temperature. A summer day is, at least according to meteorological understanding, a day on which the maximum temperature reaches at least 25°.

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.

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

Snowy Easter walks, sunny, warm foehn weather immediately followed by more precipitation, in turn followed by clearing and rain: April weather lives up to its name.

It's time for an alarm, because there's fresh snow from the west to northwest again. And the magic meter is likely to be broken again by Sunday. The chances of this happening in the congested areas from Glarnerland to Arlberg are quite good, and in the far east, from Salzburg to the Dachstein, it's even very likely.

In 2011, we want to take a leaf out of the book of the ubiquitous annual reviews. As a skier, you usually think more in terms of winters and less in terms of calendar years, but if you sprinkle a few key statistical data points into the weather talk with strangers on the lift, you come across as incredibly well-educated, which rarely hurts.

Glaciology is a specialty of meteorology. Glaciologists go to "their" glaciers twice a year and dig holes in order to later determine the mass balance. To do this, they need helpers, usually students, who lend a hand with digging and carrying various pieces of equipment.