![Clouds and sun in Tyrol on 16.4.2012](/en/img/asset/aW1hZ2VzL2FydGljbGVzLzIwMTIvMDQvMDcwOV93ZXR0ZXJibG9nXzIzLTIwMTJfLV93YXNfZGVyX2FwcmlsX3dpbGwvcDQxNzcwMzdfMS5qcGc=/p4177037_1.jpg?w=1024&h=768&fit=crop&q=85&s=519d27b5fd905f27f0602cd0a57763a8)
One likes to accuse April of not knowing what it wants. In view of the constantly changeable April weather, this seems rather far-fetched to me. I suspect that people generally underestimate the complexity of April's character and that it knows exactly what it doesn't want, namely weeks of cold spells like January or sunshine every morning and a heat storm just in time for afternoon tea like August. April prefers variety, but without too much effort.
Current situation & outlook
Instead of completely changing everything every two days, it lets the general weather situation be the general weather situation and indulges in lots of little gimmicks, a little intermittent high here, a bit of foehn there, a shower here, a weak cold front there. For the Alpine region, a low pressure system bobbing around over the British Isles is currently the most relevant. It won't move too far west before it breaks up into its constituent parts, but that won't matter as it will be replaced by another one immediately, so nothing will actually change for us. The Alps are and will remain in a rather low-gradient swamp that hardly changes on a large scale and is difficult to predict on a small scale. It will remain cloudy with sunny spells and occasional showers until the weekend. At the weekend it could become sunnier due to a slight turn of the flow to the south, with cloudy spells and occasional showers. Constantly changeable, just as April wants it to be.
Snow situation
Our character month has been kind to us so far and is playing its games with relatively low temperatures. At the beginning of the week, there was enough fresh snow to lure the oracle out of its cave and this not only makes for a pretty wintry look, but also for wintry driving pleasure. Where the fresh snow is not lying on a crust of melted snow and is willing to slide off, the surface is often still soft even below 2000 meters. Even on the main ridge, the extremely wind-blown conditions are slowly improving, raising hopes of a viable glacier touring season. If you can do without perfect visibility, you should take advantage of the April weather these days; you can still ski on firn in May.