Stratosphäre

The Tambora volcano is located on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. In April 1815, Tambora erupted, with far-reaching consequences not only for the surrounding area, but for the whole world. The WeatherBlog recently read a book about it.

In contrast to the rest of the winter so far, the Alps have been in a north-easterly flow for a while now (apart from a few foehns), which brings relatively cool weather. Most recently, a drop of cold air paid us a visit. What's it all about and why are we not feeling the otherwise frequent Atlantic influence at the moment?

Just a few days ago, the Alps were still in a mild, westerly flow. There was precipitation, but unfortunately not in the right state of aggregation for the most part. What has changed?

Every year, we wish for reliable announcements that the winter will be great, preferably including a great forecast for the long weekend when the ski trip is already booked. Every year there is no such thing. This week's WeatherBlog deals with the following question from PG reader Benny_Supernova: If you now combine that (last week's polar vortex topic) with a 65% chance of an upcoming "El Nino" in the Northern Hemisphere winter, what does that add up to? Another "hammer winter" in the Northern Alps (e.g. Innsbruck, where my best skiing buddy lives)?

The current weather situation offers large east/west and cold/warm contrasts and remains difficult to predict. A sudden warming of the stratosphere could determine the further course of winter.

While the north-western Alps are drowning in snow, there is no sign of winter in the lowlands. January temperatures are often around 5 degrees above the long-term average and it has only seriously snowed above around 600 meters so far. There doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the wet and mild westerly slide - or is there?