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Storm Egon to bring fresh snow and colder conditions to Austria

Storm "Egon" is heading towards Austria, bringing colder temperatures and more snow.

Published: 13 January 2017 17:13 CET
Storm Egon to bring fresh snow and colder conditions to Austria
Snow in Vienna. Photo: Paul Gillingwater

Germany was lashed by hurricane-force winds and snow on Friday, leaving at least one driver dead, thousands without power and more than 100 flights cancelled.

After milder temperatures in Austria in the last few days, the mercury will drop and mountainous regions will see heavy snowfall – up to 60cm in some alpine areas. 

Carinthia and Styria will also have plenty of snow over the weekend – with Klagenfurt and Graz forecast to have up to 15cm of fresh snow. Several accidents have already been reported in Carinthia due to the snowy conditions. 

At altitudes of 800 metres, up to 40cm of snow is expected. Snow is also forecast north of the Alps, from Vorarlberg to the south of Lower Austria. The capital, Vienna, may also get a light blanket of the white stuff. 

On Sunday, maximum temperatures in Austria won’t be above 0C, and temperatures will continue to fall next week.

 

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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