Patscherkofel

It's that time again, the end of the year is approaching and it's time for fireworks. As the year draws to a close and the first firecrackers go off in the valley, it's worth taking a look up there. Innsbruck has been celebrating its mountain New Year's Eve on the Nordkette since 1994.

The current southerly foehn conditions are almost creating a summer feeling, especially in western Austria and parts of Switzerland: in Feldkirch (Vorarlberg), 20°C were measured at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, and temperatures were also close to the 20° mark at some other stations on Tuesday morning.

For the coming weekend, there are warnings of a Föhn storm on the main Alpine ridge and the areas north of it - including Saharan dust. Almost every skier is familiar with foehn or foehn-like effects on the mountain. Especially those who like to stay in areas on the main Alpine ridge. But what does the downdraft do to the snow cover?

Low pressure system Ruzica disturbed the carnival revelers in the German carnival strongholds on Rose Monday. Low Susanna then put the finishing touches to the whole thing last night. Together with a strong föhn wind, the carnival in the Alps was also blown away by the wind.

From a meteorological point of view, spring begins at the beginning of March, which we, as well as various weather services, take as an opportunity to look at a few key statistical data. Otherwise: A greeting from the desert turns the snow yellow.

The past few days in the northern Alps have been characterized by sunshine and foehn winds. Low pressure system Yvan slowly moved from the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean and provided the southerly flow that brought us gale-force gusts last weekend. Wind speeds of 140 km/h were measured on the Patscherkofel on Saturday (12.3), 115 km/h on the Zugspitze and an impressive 104 km/h in Innsbruck city center (station at the university).