Nordstau

Now that our colleague Orakel has already spoken twice, it's high time for the WeatherBlog to dive back into the action. The weather has a lot to offer at the moment, so we'll take a classic look at the current situation and the outlook for the future.

As always, PowderAlert is about the existential things in life. To be or not to be; to ski or to stay at home. Decisions of Shakespearean proportions are on the agenda.

Normally, snow from the north also means powder. Last week was different. This time, too, there's something wrong with Ullr's gifts: the coming fresh snow will probably not be usable below the tree line, as the snow line will also rise towards the end of the precipitation.

March is shaping up to be a veritable winter month and there's plenty more to come on top of the existing base as Ullr is working overtime on the atmospheric machine. The only fly in the ointment is the significantly higher snow line than recently.

Atlantic lows continue to slide from the northwest towards Central Europe and determine the weather in the Alps. After the heavy foehn event at the weekend (wind peaks of 224 km/h on the Lauberhorn, Switzerland) and accumulated precipitation in the south, there will be almost continuous precipitation in the north this week.

Outlook: Warm, cold, snow, rain, sun, thunderstorms - the carnival days have it all. Embedded in a windy westerly current, several small lows are heading towards the Alps in quick succession. After cold and fresh snow down to some valley locations on Friday, warmer weather will quickly follow.

We take a look at where January 2017 ranks in the climate statistics and then consider the current situation and further developments in February: a long phase of cold, dry weather is followed by mild, foehn-like conditions in the north and fairly widespread precipitation in the parched south. It remains to be seen whether this change will last or whether we will soon return to familiar patterns.

Ullr has an understanding in mid-January and ends the early winter. At least in northern Switzerland and western Austria. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to France and western Switzerland, where it snows for the first time since the beginning of November and you only reach the meadow riding phase for the time being. In the far east, there is more snow on the base so that freeriding can continue there.

While I was sitting on the plane, Ullr thought to himself: "Oh, skiing with a base like this is nicer, I'll send a load right after. And to make sure I surprise everyone, I'll put more pressure on the models.

The long awaited and since at least last week hyped northern storm has arrived. My colleague Orakel has already summarized the practical information (short version: in the east - Salzburg/STMK area - it looks best in terms of amounts and base, it will be very windy), so we are less concerned with the result of the current weather situation and more with its general structure.

At last. The time has come: there is a real northerly accumulation in - almost - the entire Northern Alps. For many areas from central Switzerland to Tyrol, this means that the first real snowfall of the season will come on January 5th. Oh well! This also means: don't forget to switch to early season mode. In terms of snow cover, it feels more like early/mid-November here. Further east, there is already a certain base and Ullr serves you powder again. You can actually go freeriding "properly".

Why does only the East get something from the PowderAlert? What happens afterwards? What about the possible weather change at the turn of the year?