What is fascinating to observe from afar often looks rather threatening in the middle of it: In Prägraten in East Tyrol, several districts were evacuated at the weekend. Buildings in Defereggen Valley were also damaged by an avalanche that reached the village. Impressive pictures of this can be found here. While it snowed in the higher valleys, most of the precipitation fell as rain further down, for example in Lienz. This resulted in mudslides, numerous cellar floods, flooded traffic routes, etc. Toppled electricity pylons and damage to power lines caused by broken branches and trees led to regional power outages. According to ORF, 1200 households in East Tyrol alone were still without power on Tuesday. Many transport links in the snow-covered regions are or were interrupted, including many smaller roads as well as major axes such as the Felbertauernstraße or train services on the Brenner Pass. Even the Brenner highway northbound was partially closed at the weekend due to the risk of avalanches.
The amount of precipitation was also extreme in terms of statistics. At some stations, particularly in Upper Carinthia and East Tyrol, new records were set for the 3-day precipitation total. There were fewer new snow records, as the snow line fluctuated considerably in some places and there was also a lot of rain at lower altitudes. But there were also new records for the statistics: in Umhausen in Ötztal, which is actually quite far away from the main ridge, around 80 cm of fresh snow fell at the weekend. The previous 24-hour record at this station was 45cm. You can find out more about the records in Austria at ZAMG. There were also some considerable amounts of precipitation in Switzerland (especially the Upper Engadine), but this time they could not quite keep up with the more easterly core areas in South and East Tyrol and Carinthia
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