WeatherBlog 10 2025/26 | The Beast from the East

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Current situation

The sharp air mass boundary announced by Lea has now formed into a distinctive trough that extends far south to the Iberian Peninsula. This means that the Alps are still under the influence of cold air masses and even in normally mild regions such as Spain and southern Italy, temperatures below freezing were measured at the beginning of the week. On the front of the trough, there was also more snowfall in the Balkans yesterday.

Even if the snow cover in large parts of the Alps still leaves a lot to be desired, the long cold spell is currently creating the best conditions for all those sports that require frozen water. Even at lower altitudes, such as in Bavaria, the frozen lakes are perfect for ice skating and curling.

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08/01/2026 12 UTC: Cold air masses move over the Balkans deep into the south.

PG-Wetter

ICON-EU

Outlook

From today, the weather in the Alps will become more exciting again. The first snowfall will occur on the north-western side. A weak ridge will rush over the Alps on Thursday and Friday and at the same time there will be serious amounts of fresh snow in the western slopes of the French and Swiss Alps. Up to over 50 cm is forecast there over the next two days. In combination with strong to stormy westerly winds, however, the avalanche situation is also likely to tighten. In the Eastern Alps, the increase in fresh snow will initially be much more modest.

However, this is likely to change from Saturday in the form of a pronounced northerly accumulation. Snowfall of up to 50 cm is expected on the entire northern slopes of the Alps next week. Our colleague Orakel is surely already preparing one or two PowderAlerts and will keep us informed about the details of these snowfalls. This will certainly open up many opportunities for ski touring and freeriding on the northern side of the Alps, and the search for powder will not be difficult. Only on the southern side of the Alps are no significant snowfalls expected and we respectfully express our sincere sympathy.

120h of fresh snow: snowfall everywhere. In Morocco, the Pyrenees, the Appennines, the British Isles, across central Europe, the Balkans, all the way to the Middle East...

PG-Wetter

ICON-EU

Greenlandic heatwave

While Europe is currently dominated by Arctic air masses, subtropical air masses have been able to move over Greenland right up to the North Pole. This means temperature anomalies of over 10°C in Greenland's Nuuk. Greenland is characterized by its ice sheet, and despite the fact that it is shown enlarged on common maps in Mercator projection due to its high northern latitude, this ice mass is a very important element of the climate system. Off its coast, evaporation and salinization and subsequent subsidence create the deep water that drives the thermohaline circulation of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation). The melting of the Greenland ice sheet means freshwater input, which inhibits the formation of deep water, and this mechanism is the essential one in the discussion about the drying up of the AMOC and consequently the warm Gulf Stream. The melting of the ice sheet is caused by global warming alone, but is accelerated by Arctic amplification and subsequent feedback: the more the ice sheet melts, the lower its height and the higher temperatures it is exposed to. Greenland therefore has the largest mass of ice after Antarctica and therefore plays a key strategic role in the climate system that far exceeds its geopolitical role.