Starkschneefall

In addition to war zone-like reports from the Alps and #Powstria, you can currently also read headlines such as: "Skier suffocates in meter-high snow". In addition to the high risk of avalanches, days of intense fresh snowfall are accompanied by completely different dangers.

...and the occasional bit of north-westerly congestion. That more or less sums up the current outlook. As you can read in the never-ending PowderAlert series, it's still snowing in the northern Alps for the time being.

One man's sorrow is another man's joy, as the saying goes. This was also the case with the last PowderAlert, or rather the heavy snowfalls, which not only kept the avalanche warnings busy, but also the civil protection. The Davos department of the PowderGuide editorial team was evacuated due to the avalanche danger and had to leave their home. How do you feel when something like that happens? Steffen reports:

Over the last few days, the much overused term "snow chaos" has been quite appropriate in large parts of the Alps. Now the snow-related state of emergency is easing and the cut-off valleys and villages are getting a weather window to dig themselves out in the sunshine.

OK, the Fenris wolf hasn't appeared in the maps yet, but what Ullr has planned for Monday looks slightly apocalyptic. 150cm and more have already fallen in the last two alarms. And Ullr thinks to himself: all good things come in threes, so he's going full throttle again at the end.

At least it looks as if things will continue to be lively after that, as the low pressure systems and their fronts will be in full swing in the brisk westerly flow. More on this in the paragraph on the medium term. It seems that there are only big snowfalls left this season and freeriders are happy to accept them, as they are good for building up the snowpack later and in the meantime you can finally have fun in the trees without a handbrake!

Ullr, our dearest God, no longer seems to be working part-time in March. As soon as the snow in the south is through (with up to 120 cm according to the SLF, as stated in the alarm), it starts again in the north-west and there's a lot more to come.

The WeatherBlog apologizes for the late appearance this week, but our colleague Orakel has everything under control as usual. As he has already vaguely announced, there is a very high probability of extremely interesting weather next week.

The northern congestion was short-lived and we fall back into a south-westerly situation that is quite impressive: While there are warnings of heavy snowfall and high to very high avalanche danger on the southern slopes of the Alps, the north can expect a mild foehn.