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WeatherBlog 19 2017/18 | Calendar start of spring

Spring freezes happily

by Lea Hartl 03/21/2018
After the statistically inclined meteorologists have already thought it was spring since the beginning of the month, the more astronomically oriented calendars are now following suit and have also been proclaiming the new season since yesterday (March 20). Meanwhile, the weather is unimpressed by this and that and remains rather wintry as usual.

The outbreak of cold air that brings us late winter is caused by high air pressure over Scandinavia. The high there has docked diagonally to the Azores High and is guiding air from the north-east towards the south-west on its eastern flank in accordance with the direction of rotation, i.e. towards us. The opposite cog in the wheel is a small low in the Adriatic. Together, they are pumping in cold and partly humid air from continental, north-eastern climes and the crocuses are getting snowed on.

After a few centimetres of fresh snow overnight, clouds are still sticking around in the north today, Wednesday, but the main ridge may get over it and it's generally sunnier in the south with light foehn effects. With temperatures down to -20° at 3000m and a fresh wind, there's hardly any spring skiing feeling at the moment. Tomorrow it will be quite sunny everywhere at first, before clouds move in again from the north around midday. It will then snow from these clouds, more on the cosmetic scale, before disappearing again in the course of Friday.

In the western Alps, this small snowfall episode will probably be completely absent and it will also remain quite friendly south of the main Alpine ridge. Meanwhile, temperatures will gradually rise, but it will probably remain relatively cool until well into the weekend. From today's perspective, Saturday will be quite sunny in the north, but less so in the south. Sunday will tend to be more changeable and friendlier in the east than in the west, where there will probably be some fresh snow.

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Cold phases in March are not particularly unusual, as the DWD knows: the last time there were similar March temperatures was in 2013. Depending on the definition, winter is not over yet or not for long and the cold air that forms during winter in the higher latitudes, especially over the land masses, is still more or less close to us. The majority of Siberia and Scandinavia is covered in snow and if the flow is right, as it has been over the last few days, the air is blown from there to us without warming up much. Although today is already slightly longer than the following night - even in Siberia and at the North Pole - it will still take a while for the winter cold air reserves to dissipate.

Both the statistical-meteorological and astronomical-calendrical seasons make a certain amount of sense and have their raison d'être. This seems more questionable when it comes to the upcoming change from winter to summer time, and especially the reverse change in the fall. Nevertheless, it should be noted: There is a time change at the weekend. And it's the version that eats up an hour's sleep.

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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