WeatherBlog 16 2018/19 | Return of the westerly weather

Current situation and outlook

A strong extension of the Azores High is still over the Alps and will provide plenty of sunshine, high temperatures and general spring fever everywhere today, Wednesday. However, a low over the British Isles is nibbling away at our high in the northwest and a first low pressure system will reach the Alps around Thursday evening. Wind and clouds increase from the NW over the course of Thursday and it gets colder. In the evening it will start to snow on the northern slopes of the Alps. Friday will be widely overcast, with snow and rain showers subsiding. The amount of fresh snow is expected to be somewhere between cosmetic and 20 cm, here and there a little more in more westerly, favorable congested areas. In the south, it will remain dry and rather clear with a light north föhn.

The weekend looks like something between "half sunny" and "mixed". In the eastern Alps, clouds will hang around for longer on Saturday, in the west it will clear up more quickly, but it will be quite windy everywhere and briefly milder in the north with a föhn wind. On Sunday, the next disturbance will approach from the west. The trend for next week is also towards unsettled westerly weather with a rapid succession of shallow troughs and ridges, similar to before the long phase of high pressure, but now with slightly higher temperatures.

However, the atmosphere is not quite as unchanging as concrete steps in the Eisbach, which is why our standing wave is toppling over these days. Instead of one big wave, we'll soon be getting lots of smaller waves that are embedded in a strong, zonal current and pass by much faster. This winter's snow is probably slowly coming to an end at low altitudes, but in the mountains the weather is getting more exciting again.