Schnee

Every two years, full-time snow scientists - both practitioners and those with a more theoretical bent - meet to exchange knowledge at the International Snow Science Workshop, the so-called "Ei-S-S-double-you" (ISSW)*. Every two weeks, we take a look at individual topics from the last conference and summarize them in a generally understandable way, or at least try to. What the ISSW is in particular, and what the last one was, can be found in this article:

The last of its kind. Confucius says: "Powder in May, passes quickly." For all those who want to read the last official PowderGuide Alarm with pathos, pining and kitsch and think back to a pretty good season (or want to take themselves back to the Christmas TV program of the late 80s), here is the soundtrack to the Alarm. PowderGuide goes multimedia!

Spring is progressing rapidly, but has to pause for breath: Cool air of polar origin is reaching the Alps from the north-east and it is getting fresh again with snowfall limits in some of the higher valleys. Maybe it's better to wait a few more days with the summer tires!

A large-scale weather situation of the "anticyclonic north" type brings sunshine (therefore anticyclonic) with relatively cool temperatures (because of the northerly flow). Good conditions to make the most of the little fresh snow of the last few days with the best touring weather!

High Dorit and Erika have been bringing warm and practically precipitation-free weather for many days. On the sunny side, you can now find spring-like conditions with firn, depending on the altitude. On the shaded side, you can still catch a few turns of good powder - at least where the wind hasn't worked - despite a zero degree limit of over 3,000m at times. Why?

First of all, to answer the question of those who keep a watchful eye on the weather: Why the alarm now? The south has snow and a base and you could already drive here and there!

Anyone who lives in the mountains is unlikely to be complaining about the lack of winter feeling at the moment - the villages at higher altitudes are covered in deep snow and the enormous snowfalls of the last few weeks, including the resulting road closures and avalanche damage, are still very much in evidence. However, as January has been very mild, the picture is very different in the lowlands.

Today and tomorrow will be extremely turbulent in the Alps with gale-force winds and heavy precipitation in the west and north. Also changeable at the weekend, with the current turning to the south. Also: spectacular lake-effect snowfall over the holidays in the USA!

It's finally that time again! It's been snowing all night, the base is already good anyway, the branches of the trees are laden to bursting point...

The signs are still pointing to winter. A northerly current is carrying polar air masses towards the Alps. It's snowing and it's staying cold or getting colder, at least in Europe. If anyone is interested in the weather at the North Pole: it's getting warm there.

Spring is unbeatable with the presentation of snow of all conceivable categories. We dedicate ourselves to two variations that have nothing to do with the common powder but somehow subjectively belong to powder.

Ever since we got the SNOWGRID maps on PowderGuide, we've been getting questions about their accuracy: Why is there much more snow here in my favorite forest slope than on the map? SNOWGRID says there's two meters of snow in Ticino, but my buddy says there's nothing at all? Below we provide some insights into the complex world of precipitation measurement, the efforts of ZAMG to record snow as accurately as possible and why it still doesn't always work.