Omega-Lage

The sun means well with us - perhaps a little too well. A small high-altitude low caused a few blemishes on Tuesday and Wednesday, then high pressure took over and the meteorological start of spring began with an omega situation. For us, this means big temperature differences between day and night, firn windows in the morning - and a watchful eye on the avalanche situation in the afternoon.

As announced in PowderAlert 3 and the SnowChase Xmas Special, it's been snowing - sometimes heavily - from the Maritime Alps to Piedmont since Sunday morning. While people are still sitting in the dry north of the Alps, winter is knocking on the door in the south.

Every year, we and all the Christmas tourists are waiting in the wings, but the weather isn't really cooperating. The foggy areas in the foothills of the Alps are probably the most wintery at the moment. In the mountains, the sun is shining and temperatures are climbing into the double digits with the influence of föhn winds.

Various WeatherBlogs, regulars' table discussions and powder oracles have already hinted at it and we confirm: the winter weather is over for now. The infamous Omega weather pattern is currently establishing itself over Central Europe and it is already getting noticeably warmer. Whether there will be a summery Christmas, how much rain could fall and what this has to do with the polar vortex is discussed below. For the Omega weather situation, we recommend that nervous freeriders take a meditative "Ommm", inhale deeply through the nose and exhale with the belly. We hope this will help regulate stress levels for the time being.

The cool, sunny spring weather will increasingly turn into summer temperatures with the onset of the Föhn wind. A late onset of winter is not in sight, but at least some precipitation is possible in the south after the long sunny spell.

Both the participants of the PowderGuide final meeting in Engelberg and Mose in the border triangle fully enjoyed the last snowfalls. Elsewhere, unfortunately, there was also slow glop paired with dangerous avalanche conditions. An intermediate high is currently giving us spring fever again, but will be replaced by a southerly flow with lots of precipitation at the weekend. We hope this will bring another PowderAlert, although the state of the precipitation seems to be more liquid than fluffy.

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.

After a few turbulent days with lots of fresh snow, the sun is back for the time being. The view of the general weather situation - currently and in the crystal ball - is not very wintry and the WeatherBlog is a little bored.

Despite the relatively cold Easter days, we are taking big steps towards summer. The PowderGuide weather is also approaching the summer break and we will soon discontinue the usual weather service. If it does get wintry again, the WeatherBlog will report on a case-by-case basis.

An end to the high pressure phase is not in sight. The Omega High will merely shift a little, so that the flow will turn to a more southerly direction over the next few days. This will make it warmer and slightly foehn-like, at least in the west.

The high pressure will stay with us until tomorrow, but then the general weather situation will change to much more zonal, mild westerly weather. This means more snow, at least for the higher elevations, albeit at relatively high temperatures.

As was already foreseeable last week, a powerful area of high pressure is currently building up over Central Europe. The high pressure will accompany us until further notice and unfortunately there is no snow in sight. The high pressure is blocking the current over the Atlantic and deflecting the frontal zone to the north, so that it is a long way off for us and does not affect our weather in a wintry way.