Today we still have to hold out. A distinctive cold front with a stormy north-west wind moving across the country at 70 km/h will bring snow at higher altitudes, as well as sleet and rain in the lowlands. “Monday is the worst day of the week,” says meteorologist Josef Haslhofer from the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG). But in the middle of the week there is finally a first foretaste of spring.
Today, however, it will remain cloudy all day long from the Salzkammergut to the Pyhrn-Eisenwurzen, in the Mühlviertel and in the lowlands the clouds can loosen up a little. The rain will stop on Tuesday, the unpleasant wind will remain, but will only blow at 40 km/h.
From the middle of the week, high air pressure will determine the weather. On Wednesday and Thursday it will be almost radiantly beautiful, there will be hardly any clouds in the sky. “The wind is already calming down on Wednesday night, and in the afternoons it will be relatively mild for this time of year with up to twelve degrees,” says Haslhofer. The fog will also not play a role in basin areas.
On Friday, with a freshening westerly wind, thicker clouds will gradually appear, but it will remain relatively mild before cold air will spill over the country from the north-east again on Saturday. Then the thermometer only shows a maximum of four degrees.
Avalanche situation in the mountains
In the mountains, the avalanche situation has eased again after the heavy snowfall at the beginning of last week, and avalanche warning level 2 currently applies in Upper Austria that the wind is the master builder of the avalanche,” says Christoph Preimesberger, head of the mountain rescue service in Upper Austria. At higher altitudes from 1500 meters, which are very wind-exposed, the danger should not be underestimated.
Unfortunately, this weekend in Tyrol it once again proved true that most accidents happen at avalanche warning level 3. “On a scale of one to five, many only rate the danger as medium, but it is significant,” emphasizes Preimesberger. Then just one skier could trigger a slab of snow.
Preimesberger advises keeping a reasonable safety distance of 15 to 20 meters when ski touring together in order to minimize the stress and thus the risk of triggering an avalanche.
Source: Nachrichten
