Klimawandel

A low pressure system from the Arctic hits the north coast of Germany, bringing gales, rain, thunder and lightning, but also snow and cold. The flow remains north-westerly and leads cold, moist air to the northern alps. With this first, cautious call of a winter onset, the PG WeatherBlog starts its weekly work. We are looking forward to put a snowy winter into words and graphics for you.

The Austrian Board of Trustees for Alpine Safety (ÖKAS) analyses alpine accidents and derives trends, recommendations and prevention measures from the data. Since 2006, the Alpine Fair has served as a platform for information, training and networking, with the Alpine Forum, organised by ÖKAS, playing a central role. Since this season, ÖKAS has also been a partner of PowderGuide, with the aim of jointly disseminating information and knowledge on the subject of alpine safety.

Only a financial rescue package totalling 95 million euros can create the conditions for Austria's Alpine Associations to continue to preserve mountain huts and and hiking trails for all mountain recreationists.

The weather can be summarised as follows at the moment: Before the summer is after the summer is before the summer and sometimes it snows. At the moment we're in a "it's snowing again" phase. Tomorrow summer will return.

We spent three days together with Patagonia-Europe in the Rauris Valley and, in addition to the new product presentation, we paid a visit to the Sonnblick Observatory. There, Dr. Elke Ludewig, head of the high-alpine research station, gave us interesting insights into how research has been taking place every day at an altitude of 3,106 metres since 1886. Topics on glacier degradation, sustainable materials and climate change were at the centre of the event.

A lot is falling from the sky again across the Alps at the weekend, and at least in high Alpine locations you can expect the snow conditions to improve and some powder. Winter is far from over, as there will also be precipitation next week. For lovers of apocalyptic news, we also have the finest entertainment, the Atlantic is boiling over!

Education is one of the most important factors in driving social change towards a more sustainable and increasingly fair world. For this reason, Protect Our Winters Austria organises a variety of different climate workshops that are adapted to the respective target group. With the "Mountainsports for Everyone" project, POW Austria has set itself the goal of providing children and young people who normally have little or no connection to mountain sports with low-threshold access to climbing, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding. At the same time, important knowledge and an awareness of the climate crisis was imparted to them through age-appropriate climate workshops.

The series of southerly storms seems to be over for the time being and the medium term looks like (south)westerly weather. Otherwise, we have various "Miscellaneous" blog items this time.

The mean temperature for February this year corresponds to a warmer than average March. In all Alpine countries, February was much warmer than usual and records were broken in many cases. The statistical winter (December, January, February) was also one of the warmest on record. Of course, the skiing winter is not over yet, and there will be more to come in the south at the weekend.

Last week's pattern is set to repeat itself: After a brief interlude of high pressure on Thursday, the southern flow will return with föhn in the north and wet weather in the south. Winter at altitude will continue and the mild, slushy spring at lower elevations will too.

On the southern side of the Alps, you could almost forget that winter isn't over yet: the first flowers are sprouting and a few cumulus clouds are already looming on the horizon. But wait, winter is making a comeback, and quite impressively too! We also turn our attention to the AMOC, which is once again in the spotlight thanks to a new study.

Dr. Benjamin Walter is a physicist by profession. He works at the SLF (Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research) in Davos and is primarily concerned with snow physics, specifically the changes to snow crystals caused by wind transport and the resulting risks to the snowpack structure. Christiane Eggert interviewed him for us.