Nor'easter

After some snow at the weekend, winter is visually recognizable again in the Northern Alps, although the base still leaves a lot to be desired. Some measuring stations are scratching the record minimum for the time of year. At least it's snowing in the south this week and maybe next week too!

Today, Wednesday, will be cloudy and wet across the entire Alpine region with the passage of a cold front. There will be the most fresh snow on the main Alpine ridge, but there may also be the odd heavy shower in the "peripheral areas". There will probably be no alerts anywhere, those who get 20 cm can be satisfied.

It's not often that international weather reports dominate the evening news. If it does, there is usually not much else happening, or the weather has a massive impact on many people's everyday lives, for example in the form of extreme temperatures, as recently seen in the eastern USA and Australia, or masses of snow, as is currently the case in the Western Alps.

Spring has arrived in the Alps and the high pressure weather will continue until the end of the week. Towards the weekend, it will become much cloudier with precipitation on the northern side of the Alps. We are also looking at Storm Stella, which is currently affecting the US East Coast.

Warm, unsettled westerly weather will dominate the Alpine region. With fresh winds and a high snow line, minor disturbances will keep moving through, initially on Friday night and Sunday. Otherwise, it will be reasonably bright and, as mentioned, warm. The westward slide will continue into next week. The possibility of a downstream development from the middle of next week offers some hope, but as usual this is still very uncertain.

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.