Polarwirbel

The outlook is turbulent. On the one hand, seasonal shopping, baking cookies, vacation planning, family management and the like are on the agenda. On the other hand, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a seasonal polar vortex and what this means for our winter weather! Summary of the next few days: stormy south föhn, colder from the weekend and snow from the N-NW.

The WeatherBlog has not yet decided whether winter has really begun. But to be on the safe side, we'll give you a brief overview. At least visually, it's relatively wintry from about 1000m upwards. A north-westerly current will bring new, small disturbances and a few showers today (Thursday) until Saturday. Sunday looks very sunny, then it will become more changeable again.

The forecast for the Easter weekend is still quite uncertain, but at the moment it looks like calm, rather cool weather. The current southerly flow (partly with Saharan dust again) is expected to end on Friday with a cold front. This will be followed by a north-easterly flow with cooler temperatures.

The unclouded sunshine is history. Not because winter is making a sustained comeback, but because dust is being stirred up in the Sahara. In keeping with the current drought, we are being supplied with real desert air. A small disturbance is also moving through the north-east today and it is raining or snowing a little, but there are still no significant changes in sight.

The weather will remain windy and generally mixed for a few more days. From the weekend onwards, high pressure will increasingly prevail and, in keeping with the meteorological start of spring (March 1), the coming week looks very sunny and mild.

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!

April weather lives up to its name and brings us a late PowderAlert after the first days of summer in March. A combination of high pressure over the Atlantic and a pronounced low pressure complex over northern Scandinavia is pumping cold polar air towards us.

Last week, the WeatherBlog received the following user question: "How are weather patterns and global warming connected? Does the frequency of warm weather increase in times of global warming? Or has the frequency of different weather conditions remained the same, but they have all become warmer?"

Easy come, easy go: The cold spell is over and will be replaced by Atlantic disturbances, which will initially bring some precipitation before sunshine and very warm temperatures prevail at the weekend.

Short version of the forecast: The next few days will be very, very warm. Still wet today, then mostly sunny. Cooling with the option of snow down to low altitudes, probably at the beginning of next week.

After the südstau is before the südstau, or: To those who have, shall be given. The Christmas pattern is repeating itself and a calmer phase today and tomorrow will be followed by the next stormy southerly situation on New Year's Day. The focus of the precipitation will once again be in the south-east and we are once again waiting for a report from the oracle with further details.

In line with the still not at all wintry weather situation, the weather services of Germany, Austria and Switzerland have stated in a joint press release that winters are becoming milder and that there is less and less snow, especially at low altitudes. Rising temperatures mean that proportionately more winter precipitation is falling than rain.