WeatherBlog 9 2016/17 | Alert details

Outlook

The high pressure will continue to dominate the weather throughout the Alps until New Year. Another inversion will form, it will remain frosty in the valleys and lowlands and there will be high fog here and there. At the top, it is milder and very sunny. Meanwhile, the large-scale pressure constellations in the northern hemisphere are gradually shifting a little. The polar vortex arranges itself around an implied high-pressure bridge between Greenland and Alaska and forms two larger parts, one with a core over the Asian continent and one with a core over Canada. What exactly this means for us is still unclear and changes with every model run. In contrast to the last few weeks, however, it currently looks as if this time we will at least come under the influence of the cold, damp parts of the constellation in some form, instead of being stuck in a permanent high.

Depending on how the large pressure centers arrange themselves, both a damp, mild NW situation with snow in the mountains and a clean northerly situation are conceivable. The most important factor here is whether the Azores High gives a jolt and stretches out its fingers to the north. This would produce a meridional jet, in which case the Alps would be on the right side. If the Azores High is not particularly pronounced, the flow will remain more zonal and the Atlantic influence would be more noticeable. Be that as it may, the changeover, which has been heralding itself for a while with small indications (cold Greenland, westerly breakthrough at Christmas), seems to be just around the corner.