Seealpen

Houston, we have a dump. It's season 22/23, and the PowderGuide spaceship is exploring the endless expanses of the Alps in search of the infinite depths of powder. With this first alarm, we set off on what we hope will be a long and deep season in which Ullr will give us many gifts.

In contrast to last year, there are many differences but also many similarities when it comes to the start of the best season of the year. I'm not talking about carnival, but about the Ulling, a season that roughly stretches from September to May and is very variable in its puvlig-soft appearance.

Ullr is getting into the corona streaming business in a big way and, if the crystal ball is anything to go by, wants to delight us with a whole season of more or less exciting weather conditions. As a pilot episode, he gives us something tried and tested to keep the freeriders happy and sends a short, normal südstau alarm.

On the way back to a normal season? After the rather tough course of this winter, some regions, at least in the west, are now on the way to an average season. There is a base and it continues to snow. Ullr is also making a rendezvous in the south-east and there's still plenty of snow above 1800m.

Now that Star Wars is finally (really?!) coming to an end and Skywalker's heirs are beginning their final space ride, an exciting pre-Christmas week is about to begin. Ullr has had enough of far too high temperatures and in the coming südstau there is at least the chance of good snow again in the western Southern Alps. And that's just the beginning. May the force be with us!

It just doesn't stop. Alarm 5 also brings snow to the south again. Ullr says: To him who has, to him shall be given. And more is more!

The Good: The fourth alarm of the season and the fourth südstau. In a mirror image of last season, Ullr presses the weather lock button and one südstau after another rushes into the Alps.

There is still hope! There is snow up to 1000m on the north side and April is not yet as bad as 2018, so a dump comes just in time. The countercurrent system is intense and also quite cool for April, but the core is limited to the south except for central Switzerland. Elsewhere, it's only enough for a minor alarm. Unfortunately, there is very little carpet pad to the south - Ticino is at forest fire level 4 and the rest of the Southern Alps also looks rather barren.

Ullr has ordered a strange weather situation: Once for all powder and in the southeast also with sharp in terms of volumes. Unfortunately, there isn't cold powder for everyone, as Ullr is busy spreading the low over the whole of the Alps. And since air mass opposites, roughly simplified, are responsible for our lows, there has to be warm air on one side.

The Alpine region is still under the influence of a high-altitude trough filled with cold, polar air masses, while the Azores High is trying to build up off the European Atlantic coast. Today, Wednesday, a low pressure system will slip from the British Isles towards the Mediterranean and "drip", i.e. leave the main current to remain in the Mediterranean for a while as a genoa low.

After minor snowfalls here and there, Ullr is now bringing alarm-worthy amounts to the south again. It has already started to snow and there will be a lot by Monday. The problem with southern alerts in spring is of course the high snow line in the south, in addition to the foehn in the north.

A decent dump is coming to the southwest of the Alps. It's still cold enough for powder and there's a lot of it coming down, so there's nothing wrong with a weekend in the south.