WeatherBlog 1 2020/21 | No snow in lockdown

Current situation and outlook

Let's turn to the core issues first: The Alpine region lies in a large-scale area of high pressure. The frontal zone is passing by far to the north and only brief streaks from the northwest bring a bit of variety every now and then. Most recently, the northern Alps were slightly covered in snow on Monday, but the sun quickly returned. It looks similar for the coming days. In the course of Thursday, a cold front from the north will reach the Alps, bringing cooler air and some snow, even in the (higher) valleys. However, it won't be much and certainly not lasting. On Friday, the clouds will still be accumulating in the north, but it should be sunny in the south.

All-round bright autumn weather is on the cards again for the weekend. Even at the beginning of next week, it does not look like there will be any significant change. It will gradually become a little milder at higher altitudes, but it will remain cold in the valleys, sometimes with fog.

While October was a relatively productive month for skiing this year, November seems to have dedicated itself more to a golden autumn for hiking. That doesn't have to be a bad thing in itself, but the combination of snow down to low altitudes in October and long periods of high pressure afterwards is notoriously unfavorable for the development of snow cover. Where the snow is not rock-hard by now, the accumulating transformation is progressing rapidly. We assume that the SnowFlurry will provide more information on this in the next few days. In any case, for those who have local mountains, it would be worth remembering at what altitude and in which exposures there is snow. Because you should have a possible problem layer in mind after the next major snowfall...

These snowfalls and snow left over from autumn 2019 caused comparatively moderate mass losses, particularly in the Hohe Tauern and in South Tyrol. However, in the west of Austria, in Switzerland and on the remaining glaciers in the northern Alps, such as the Dachstein massif, most glaciers have receded considerably. There was less winter snow left to buffer the summer heat and the smaller summer snowfalls also had less impact. September in particular was very warm this year and put quite a strain on the glaciers relatively late in the season. The snowfall at the end of September then marked both the end of the 2020 ablation period (melting period) and the start of the tentative ski season, which then quickly came to a temporary (!) end due to the weather and coronavirus.

The glaciers will probably continue to shrink permanently, but at least the weather will turn back towards winter at some point in the near future. And until then, we'll continue to go on socially distanced autumn hikes. In any case, the WeatherBlog is already looking forward to the 2020/21 season!