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WEATHER

Cold front to move across Austria after All Saints’ Day

After some pleasant mild and sunny autumn weather Austria can expect to experience a cold front, with rain and snow forecast after All Saints' Day on November 1st.

Published: 31 October 2016 12:41 CET
Cold front to move across Austria after All Saints' Day
Take advantage of the sunshine whilst you can... Photo: Harry Pammer/Flickr

Tuesday, which is a national holiday in Austria, will be sunny and crisp but meteorologists say Wednesday will see colder weather moving across the country.

Thick cloud and rain showers are forecast north of the Alps on Wednesday morning and the snow line will drop to 900 metres by the evening.

Temperatures will drop further on Thursday – with highs of just 11C – and the snow line will fall to 800 metres. Snow showers are possible in Upper Styria throughout the day. Vienna will stay dry but there will be a cold wind, with temperatures between 6 and 11C.

Meanwhile, Vorarlberg's traditional schnapps and ‘Most’ cider producers say this year’s cold Spring weather has had a devastating effect on the apricot and Williams pear harvest and will mean production is considerably down for many local businesses.

Austrian schnapps is made using the best quality peak-of-season fruit, and so many producers are having to buy in fruit this year from South Tyrol or France.

WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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