We speak of hurricane-force winds when speeds of 64 knots are reached. That is just under 120 km/h or level 12 on the Beaufort scale. Wind forces in Beaufort are specified using phenomenological criteria. Level 11 (hurricane-like storm) prevails, for example, when there is severe damage to forests and houses and you can hardly walk. Level 12 (hurricane) is then a little more severe.
Winter storm Andrea is approaching
Hurricanes also occur time and again in our latitudes. The current general weather situation is bringing us a whole series of storms and hurricane lows that are sliding from the Atlantic to Europe on the still slippery westward slide. The first low pressure system, Ulli, has just passed by, bringing hurricane force winds to parts of Germany and the UK. Before that, we were visited by Joachim (Joachim and the Shapiro Keyser cyclones), which wreaked havoc in parts of France, Switzerland and southern Germany in mid-December, bringing the mild, dry early winter to a definitive end. The next candidate is called Andrea and is currently in the area of the British Isles. By Thursday (tomorrow, 5.1.12), she will move towards the Baltic Sea, stretching her fingers (=her occluded fronts) towards the south.
Andrea gives a round of fresh snow
Andrea will ensure fairly widespread fresh snow in the northern Alps until Saturday morning. The previously so spoiled north/northwest slopes will be favored again. We're looking at three-digit centimetres there and a word from the oracle can be expected, provided the author doesn't remain isolated from the achievements of modern communication. The American GFS model sees Andrea with a (pretty low) core pressure of 960hPa, other models such as the ECMWF calculate somewhat weaker variants in terms of pressure gradients and wind speeds. Severe weather warnings have been issued for western Austria and Bavaria and storm chasers are even hoping for one or two winter thunderstorms.
Car journeys on relevant ski vacation chaos routes such as the Fernpass (near Reutte) are not advisable over the next few days, as are overly ambitious freeride activities with a possible high (level 4) avalanche risk. It will clear up a little on Saturday before the next disturbance in the evening.
