WeatherBlog 3 2019/20 | Foot cold, mild at high altitude

At the same time, it is very mild and sunny at higher altitudes, while the windless conditions in the valleys are creating decent inversions. The best weather for escaping the cold, gray valleys and enjoying the sun on the mountain.

From today's perspective, the weather will pick up again at the weekend. Low pressure will move in and the weather will become more mixed again. For now, this means only a rather cloudy Saturday, which will put an end to the unclouded sunshine. Sunday looks a little sunnier again before it becomes much more unsettled from Monday with precipitation from westerly to north-westerly directions and generally stormy conditions. It's still a few days away, but we're hoping for more snow in the north. And: Long live the variety!

Autumn, which in meteorological terms lasts from September 1 to November 30, was also mild overall and wet in the south (for Switzerland read more here, for Austria here). The latter is primarily due to the südstau in November, which brought significantly more precipitation in some regions than would otherwise be expected in the entire fall. In Austria, the fall of 2019 was the fourth warmest since measurements began (1767). The 5 warmest autumns in the time series all occurred in the last 10 years. In Switzerland, it was the sixth warmest autumn since measurements began (1864).

In addition, ZAMG is already taking the precaution of addressing the annual topic of white Christmas and states "In the period from 1951 to 1980, there was twice as often a 24 December with a closed snow cover in the provincial capitals as in the period from 1983 to today. At low altitudes, the chance of a white Christmas has therefore halved in the last few decades, although it is pointed out that this is also, but not exclusively, due to global warming. In the 1960s, there was a series of very cold winters that had a significant impact on this particular statistic.

No meteorologist knows yet whether there will be a white Christmas this year, and the weather forecasting anthills and mullein are of different opinions, according to WeatherBlog's research. Once again, we'll have to wait and see.