Ostalpen

Apart from a short, unspectacular break today (Wednesday), there will be plenty of sunshine and little chance of fresh snow for the time being. It will become increasingly milder at higher altitudes over the next few days, while the cold air will linger in the valleys.

A WeatherBlog sparked by the circumsrtances; the first snow is falling in the Alps, and it's falling a lot. We take a closer look. Is that enough to go powder skiing already? Or does it at least provide a stable base for future snowfalls? We also clarify the status of our current weather service and give an outlook on new developments for the winter.

In the Eastern Alps, we often go freeriding in the forest, sometimes the entire descent and sometimes just the last bit of the ride. There are a few things to bear in mind. Let's take a look at the wonderful world of the winter forest together.

I actually wanted to write something about a "last hallali" or "Ullr's last attack", but martial war and hunting metaphors somehow have a stale aftertaste after the last year.

It's getting wintry again! What we missed in the height of winter will be delivered in April: With a bit of luck, we'll get a lot more fresh snow over the next few days, especially on the eastern main ridge. And with pretty low temperatures!

Shortly before Easter, the weather will be almost more wintry than at Christmas. It is and will remain relatively cool with a mix of sun and clouds and somewhat more unstable weather from Friday. The cool temperatures don't hide the poor snow conditions, but according to the WeatherBlog's subjective assessment, the snow quality has been significantly worse this season!

The oracle has already announced the key points: The coming days will bring heavy north-westerly accumulation with lots of fresh snow and wind. In terms of snowfall, the eastern Alps (from around Arlberg) look better than the west. A look at the large-scale structures explains why this is the case!

The alarming title sounds like an arthouse adaptation of an Elfriede Jelinek book and evokes associations with chamber plays in which beer-bellied men in Burgenland struggle with their fate in dark pubs.

The book presented here dates back to 2001 (!), written by three veterans of ski guide literature, the Innsbruck couple Rudolf and Siegrun Weiss and the Viennese mountain author and publishing director Kurt Schall. The fact that such an old book with a title that seems to have fallen out of time is being reviewed here either speaks in favour of the book or against the reviewer.

In this alarm you can almost finally ski like in a normal season! Joy! The only downside: unfortunately only in Lower Valais and France.

Sun in the west, cold and snow in the east - this is roughly how the current and future weather situation in Europe can be summarized. At the moment, this means snow chaos in Athens and drought in the Western Alps, among other things. The dividing line between cool "summer" and picture-book winter will move closer to us again over the next few days and, as is so often the case, there is cause for cautious hope. But beware: those who hope may be disappointed!

Court councillors, horse-drawn carriage drivers and Sissi fans finally have reason to cheer, because unlike many, many alarms, today it's not "from France to the Arlberg", but Ullr makes Felix Austria happy.