WeatherBlog 3 2018/19 | Western weather at the start of winter

Current situation and outlook

The snowfalls that have brought winter to the valleys in the north-east over the last few days of autumn are subsiding and today, Wednesday, will be quite sunny throughout the Alpine region with some high cloud fields in the west. Thursday will also be bright, although it will be much milder at higher altitudes: The Azores High will push far into Central Europe, while at the same time an Atlantic Low will approach from the west. The resulting SW flow will bring very mild air masses to the Alps and it will be foehn-like, at least in the areas susceptible to it. The cold base layer, which is now hanging in many valleys, is likely to remain in place, which may save the north-east its fresh snow cover into the winter or Advent. It will also be very cold on the Balkans and on the eastern Adriatic. The "weather wave" bringing us mild air from the SW will bring cold air from the NE here.

In addition, the ZAMG states: since 1961, both the frequency and the intensity of inversions, which are particularly typical for fall and winter, have decreased. In Austria, the probability of a day with an inversion has decreased by 11% on average and the average vertical temperature difference within the inversion has decreased by 0.3°C, whereby the changes vary greatly depending on the month, altitude and federal state. The reasons are unclear. One possible explanation would be that certain weather conditions occur more or less frequently - inversions are generally associated with stable high pressure - but the question of why has not yet been definitively answered.