WeatherBlog 5 2025/26 | After the snow is before the snow

Current situation and outlook

The course for our weather is currently set somewhere between a massive Arctic outbreak over the north-east of the American continent and the continental high over Eastern Europe and Russia. The very cold air masses extending far to the south over Canada are stimulating the development of Atlantic low pressure and one frontal system after another is being transported towards Europe by the increasingly zonal (west-east oriented) flow. In the east, the wedge of the continental high is positioned to block the flow. This means that the low pressure systems are deflected away from the Alps towards the north or south.

Thanks to this combination, a moderate southwesterly flow has formed over the Alpine arc. Temperatures are trending milder and we will see some Föhn in the north. South of the main Alpine ridge, a few snowflakes are likely to accumulate in the western Alps by tomorrow (Thursday) evening, but not in the east. The rest of the outlook is vaguely boring - there will be little change to the overall situation and the weather will remain mild and mostly dry for the time being, but not really sunny either. Depending on the strength of the Föhn, tough inversions may form in the valleys.

So, decent prospects for early winter technique training on snow-covered slopes. The off-piste conditions are unlikely to improve for the time being.

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500hPa geopotential and surface pressure, GFS, Wednesday, December 3, northern hemisphere view. Cold air outbreak over Canada, blocking high in the east. In between mild SW flow.

meteociel.fr

November review

Let's take a quick look at November's weather. Quoting the WB on 26/11: "November can't be definitively classified at the moment - the next few days will decide where it lands in the rankings." For the snow, we can take our cue from the last PowderGuide.com. The core areas of the alert currently have above-average coverage, further east and south is looking more bony.

November temperatures in the Alpine region (Switzerland, Austria) were relatively close to the average for the reference period 1991-2020, i.e. "normal" in relation to the recent past. Compared to the period 1961-1990, November was "too warm". It is often possible to predict where you will end up in the climate statistics before the end of the month. The unusually low temperatures (again in relation to the current reference period - in the past, of course, everything was completely different and much colder) last week pushed the monthly ranking close to "normal" despite the very mild start to November in many cases.

Daily temperature deviations from the norm, example Obergurgl. The average monthly mean conceals a warm first half of November and a significantly colder phase towards the end of the month.

Geosphere Austria

Avalanche report starts the season

The avalanche report for Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino ("Euregio Avalanche Report") started their daily operations last week. Both the "Avalanche Report Blog" and the SLF report on weak layers in the old snow, especially at higher altitudes and in glaciated terrain. The October snow on the glaciers has had plenty of time to build facets and now forms an weak foundation for new storm snow. This was particularly impressive last week on the Stubai Glacier (photos e.g. in the Avalanche Report Blog).

The Avalanche Report also reports that a merger with the LWD Carinthia has been completed for the new season. This means that Carinthia now also appears on the large map on the landing page. The Euregio Report (including Carinthia) and the SLF use the same text modules for the warning texts. The resulting relatively homogeneous use of language facilitates standardized translations into numerous languages and work is ongoing to improve the presentation of reports in border regions. Also new in the avalanche report: micro-regions in East Tyrol and notifications via WhatsApp are possible again.

Congratulations on this alliance and we look forward to a cross-border, multilingual and, above all, snowy winter!