It is and remains omega-like spring. There is still powder, but it can only be found by searching and luck, as the wind and sun have been hard at work.
Last March was, unsurprisingly, much warmer than is normally the case. In Austria, the average monthly temperature was 2.8° above average, making March 2014 the second warmest March on record since measurements began in 1767. Another perennial issue is the persistent drought, from which only the snow-rich regions on the southern slopes of the Alps are exempt. According to ZAMG, only 44% of the usual precipitation has fallen in north-eastern Austria since October. Even the abundant snowfall in the last week of March was unable to compensate for the drought and while we recently discussed the early greening of grassland here, in some places we now have to worry that it is drying out.
News
The sunshine of the last few days was only marred by high veil clouds. These did not initially appear in any forecasts, as weather models do not recognize Saharan dust. The strong southerly flow will again transport large quantities of dust across the Mediterranean in high layers of air. The dust particles can act as condensation nuclei and cause high clouds despite the dry air. The dust concentration is set to rise again tomorrow, Thursday. The desert is even making it as far as England at the moment, where people with respiratory problems are therefore advised not to exercise outside. The ZAMG is also reporting increased levels of air pollution, but in this country it is tougher. In the Alpine valleys, the piddly sand definitely can't keep up with the transit traffic.
The dust is caused by a long-wave trough in the Atlantic, the tip of which reaches as far as North Africa. Warm, sandy air is transported to us at the front of the trough.
The Alpine region is caught in an omega situation and it doesn't look like there will be any fundamental changes at the moment. It is likely to become a little more unstable towards the weekend and convective showers cannot be ruled out. We'd rather not talk about winter in this context.
Other: Hurricane Hellen
Relatively little is happening here in terms of the weather. So let's take a look around the world: At the beginning of the week, a category 4 tropical cyclone, known as Hellen, raged along the coast of Madagascar. The storm intensified unusually rapidly at the weekend, but weakened again before hitting the coast, causing less damage than initially feared.
Seaquake in Chile
Last night, a magnitude 8.2 seaquake occurred off the Chilean coast. The epicenter was located off the northern Chilean city of Iquique. Almost a million people in Chile and neighboring coastal states were briefly evacuated due to a tsunami warning, but have apparently since been able to return to their homes. The quake caused 6 deaths.
Slide in Washington
In the devastating landslide last week in the village of Oso, Washington, 29 bodies have now been recovered and 20 people are still missing. Unusually heavy rainfall had preceded the event. The area was known to be at risk. Before and after pictures from NASA show the landslide and the resulting dammed river. Here is a tool for direct comparison.
And finally:
The second volume of the fifth IPCC (so-called Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report has been presented. The IPCC reports are produced by three working groups, each of which produces its own thousand-page book. Working Group 1 deals with the "Physical Science Basis", i.e. purely scientific aspects. WG 1's report for the 5th IPCC report was published last fall. WG 2 has now completed its contribution on "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability", i.e. the social and economic effects of climate change. WG 3 deals with "Mitigation of Climate Change", this part has not yet been published. The summary for policymakers (= short version for stupid politicians) of the current report is available here. There are also FAQs on the entire report as well as the individual chapters, which make it easier to read if you feel the need.
