Had 3 days skiing in Zillertal. Was +20 in the valley when I arrived and been very warm all week. Despite that, the skiing has been great. I now know what +13 at 1500m at 4pm feels like..it's not ideal but doable and I think I'm a better skier for it.
Typically, as I'm off home tmr, forcast is for 35cm of snow next few days, sub zero temps in the valley, and -10 up top by the weekend. A week later would have been jackpot.
These days *cough cough climate change* it's pot luck pretty much all season.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@slider24, pfft, pot luck, more like SOOL
Hopefully more snow is coming. Sorry you appear to have missed it. Though it's still 3+ days out, so there's still chance for us all to miss it
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@slider24, glad you got some good piste sliding in, despite the almost complete absence of fresh snow.
@Scarlet, had to do a double take on SOOL...but that only applies to the off-pkste fraaks
It is indeed getting colder & there was even another flurry of snow this afternoon during.g our piste-side picnic .
@Dylan_T42, I'm now back home and looks like I chose the wrong week. 30-40 cms by the weekend then bluebird and cold from Saturday. I had a blast though and will return for sure. Some great skiing in the Zillertal. Enjoy the snow!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Far better round st Gervais in France than last year, imvho best year since 2020 which is the first year we went there. Looking at the web cams you can go back to previous years to see any difference
Although you might think otherwise after the last snowfall at the end of March, the real Nordstau did not happen for the third consecutive season
The Nordstau is normally God's Snow Gift for Austrian ski areas and also for large parts of Switzerland, however unfortunately we hardly had any significant storms from the North/North West, so that also means little snow fall.
There is a very important difference with the previous season 2023/2024 where it snowed a lot higher up at elevation
2024/2025 was a very dry winter. The Eastern Alps in particular, there was much less precipitation than normal.
We should not forget.................
September 2024: We had a early spectacular start (not really that unusual for snow to fall in summer time)
Do you remember the extreme nordstau situation from 12 to 15 September?
Austria had 1 to 2 meters of snow which fell in many places even in the valleys a blanket layer of snow.
After that false start, a quiet, mild autumn followed and until mid-November there was little snow, but then it got colder. Around November 22,
At the beginning of December, it continued to snow regularly. However, a promising start of the season that had dumped up to 1 meter of snow it was a bit disappointing afterwards until December 16. For the first time in years a white Christmas in the lower valleys.
In the capital of Tyrol, Innsbruck (578M), there was also more than 20 centimeters, making it the snowiest Christmas in 20 years !!!
From Christmas onwards, sunshine which led to a fantastic, sun-drenched second week of the Christmas holidays.
After the Christmas holidays, unpredictable weather returned with no consistent (varying) freeze level.
In Austria the freeze level was lower, but there was also much less precipitation.
The snow depths in the Austrian Alps were 20 to 50% (except in the Vorarlberg) below the long-term average. .
Sunny Days in January
At the end of January Austrian ski areas along the alpine ridge gained 20 to 50 cms
but that was it and in February flipped back to sunny and mild weather not for one or two weeks, but almost the entire month sunshine days.
The Alps the sun shone 10 to 25% more than normal, in Austria even more !!
March, little changed initially. . On the north side of the Alps, however, the sun shone more than usual and it was very mild.
At the end of March surprised by a "kleiner" nordstau.
April ... Its Sunny what else
I am expecting a major Snow Dump April/May !!!
Generally this season in Austria it was a winter that never really got going for natural snow.
There was less snow than usual and the winter was mild. However, it was much less extreme than last year, the warmest winter ever measured with a deviation of +2.8 °C. So this season being slightly colder & despite the lack of snow we actually had better conditions because the Snow cannons could do their job.
Ski areas cannot survive without snow cannons that can keep Tourists satisfied taking them from Piste,Ski Hütte, Piste, Ski Hütte .
But Folks these charts are ominous ...
Hours of sunshine on the Patscherkofel (Innsbruck ) in February.
Deviation from winter temperature compared to normal in Austria
Precipitation deficit -32% Austria Jan/Feb/Mar 2025
A lot of Rain is needed from now on otherwise the river Rhein , Danube will reach record lows this summer affecting major shipping transport supply lines throughout Europe
Lets Hope 2025/2026 Delivers Bigtime for Austria
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
The long range forecast was for a cooler start and warmer end to winter and that looks likes what we got. Ironically North Atlantic sea temperatures are only now dropping back to something a bit nearer normal. It’s not often that the weather in the Alps and the UK is similar but north Eastern England has also had a very dry and sunny winter this year with exceptionally sunny, if cool, weather continuing into April.
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Poster: A snowHead
