WeatherBlog 21 2025/26 | Better late than never

Current situation and outlook

The waves of atmospheric currents are finally spilling back towards the nordstau. The Azores High is rising to the north off the Iberian Peninsula and behind it (to the east) cold air is flowing southwards. There hasn't been a "classic" outbreak of cold air of this kind for a long time, the southern accumulations have been much more productive this winter.

Now, after you not only have to put up with slopes at the relevant Tyrolean ski touring hotspots but also have to avoid racing cyclists, there's another northern alert. Today (Wednesday), a strong cold front will move across the Alpine arc during the course of the day and snowfall is expected throughout the Northern Alps by the evening. It will also be much colder and stormy, so wintry in every respect. It will continue to snow on Thursday - see the PG Powder Oracle reports for more details!

On Friday, the precipitation will decrease from west to east, the focus of the straggler snow will move to the north-eastern edge of the Alps, while the weather in the western Alps will be relatively friendly again.

The weekend and further developments are still rather uncertain, with Saturday likely to be the sunnier weekend day. From the beginning of next week, temperatures will probably gradually rise again towards spring. Whether there will be any significant precipitation in the more distant medium term is written in the stars, or rather in the widely scattering model ensembles and the oracle's fitness studies (?). It's possible!

It is not only the extremely high temperatures that are unusual, but also the spatial extent of the heatwave. The huge "heat dome" will probably continue into next week and extend further east, more or less across the entire USA. There have always been heatwaves, but without climate change, a heat dome of this magnitude would be virtually unthinkable.

The winter on the west coast was already largely warm and with little snow anyway. In many places, the heat is now doing the rest to the meagre snow cover. The consequences of the lack of snow will be felt for months to come in many regions, as important rivers lack the runoff from the melting snow. The "fire season", i.e. the season at risk of forest fires, is also likely to start much earlier than usual, especially in Colorado and Utah.

While the heat dome grills the west coast, the situation in Hawaii and Alaska could hardly be more contrasting. Here, too, atmospheric waves are surging in opposite directions. To the west of the huge heat wave lies a high-altitude low filled with cold air, to the west of which is another widely arching wedge of high pressure. In between and unfavorably on the edge lies Hawaii, which has been hit twice in a row by so-called "Kona Storms" in the last week. These are special areas of low pressure that occasionally occur in the region in winter - usually once or twice a season and not, as this time, at intervals of just a few days with record rainfall, severe flooding and evacuations.

In Alaska, on the cold side of the great wave movement, an unusually cold winter is very slowly coming to an end. Temperatures are well below average across the board and snowfall is somewhere between upper-middle and record levels, depending on the region. Juneau recorded the snowiest winter in recorded history.

All in all, the weather kitchen is currently offering many examples of "global weirding", which appropriately frame the annual WMO climate status report(published this week and expectedly worrying).