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WEATHER

Weather warning: Snow and rain to hit large parts of Austria

Despite bouts of sunny weather, the cold will continue and snow is expected to arrive in Austria this week. Here's what you can expect.

Published: 12 April 2023 16:25 CEST
Pictured is a car in Norway in snowy conditions.
Pictured is a car in snowy conditions. Photo by Anton Khmelnitsky on Unsplash

On Wednesday, a cold front from the west is reaching Austria, and expected to spread on Thursday, bringing heavy rains and snow, according to UBIMET weather experts.

On the mountains, more significant amounts of new snow will accumulate once again. The rains will gradually decrease at the weekend, but temperatures are still cold for mid-April. 

From the middle of the night to Thursday, rain and snowfall will spread to large parts of the country, from Vorarlberg over the Salzburg region to the Mühlviertel and later also from East Tyrol to Lower Carinthia it will rain or snow, sometimes heavily. 

READ ALSO: Top tips to protect yourself from storms in Austria

The snow line will gradually drop to about 800 to 1000 m, so a few centimetres of fresh snow can be expected in the central and western mountainous areas.

On Thursday, there will be frequent heavy rain, especially in the south, with the snow line fluctuating between 700 and 1000 metres. Therefore, large amounts of fresh snow is expected, especially in the central and southern mountainous regions.

From Vorarlberg to Upper Austria, the rain will decrease during the day, but the sun will appear at most in the far west for a short time. The wind north of the Alps will be moderate to brisk from westerly directions.

Weather warning in Austria for rain and snow (Screenshot: ZAMG)

On Friday, heavy rain from Salzburg across the Mostviertel eastward, especially in the Waldviertel and Weinviertel. The snow line will rise to about 900 metres. In the west and south, some precipitation will fall at first, but it will dry up during the day with a few sunny intervals, most likely in the Rhine and Inn valleys. 

READ ALSO: What is Austria’s official emergency-warning phone app, and do I need it?

Austria’s meteorologic institute ZAMG also warns of the rain and snow arriving as early as Thursday and winter conditions continuing over the weekend. 

Winter tyres

Until Saturday, April 15th, people in Austria driving their cars need to have fitted winter tyres (or proper equipment) if they are driving in “winter conditions”. That includes snow or ice water. 

READ ALSO:  Everything you need to know about driving in Austria in winter

Since the weather over winter had been relatively mild, with less snow, many decided to change their tyres for summer ones before mid-April, but that could be risky depending on the situation, especially near the Alps, where fresh snow is expected for the coming days. 

You can read more about winter and summer tyre regulations HERE.

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WEATHER

After mini tornado and floods should Austria expect a summer of extremes?

Extreme weather events have become more common and more dangerous worldwide. This week Austria experienced some of its own extreme weather with thunderstorms and even a 'small' tornado hitting the country.

Published: 22 May 2024 17:27 CEST
After mini tornado and floods should Austria expect a summer of extremes?

Heavy rainfall led to flooded cellars and muddy roads in Lower Austria on Tuesday afternoon.

In Styria, Graz residents recorded what seemed to be a tornado in the city (the head of the Styrian meteorological agency later confirmed a “small” tornado there), with large amounts of rainfall causing havoc.

Austria’s meteorological institute Geosphere Austria had already warned of thunderstorms, some of them heavy, moving north through the country—an alert that included the possibility of landslides and flooding. 

The warnings have been plentiful. Recently, experts alerted that global warming would make extreme weather events much more frequent and stronger, as The Local reported.

Summers, in particular, could see torrential downpours, hail storms as well as heat waves. 

Four heatwaves occurred in 2023, two of which lasted an unusually long time, lasting up to 18 days (July) and 16 days (August).

READ ALSO: How to protect yourself during storm season in Austria

So what about this summer?

There is nothing to indicate that people in Austria will have some relief this summer.

In fact, it has been a warmer than average year so far, with record temperatures throughout. According to Geosphere Austria, the recent winter was one of the two warmest on record.

February followed the trend, and it was the hottest in Austrian history. Parts of Austria also saw record heat in March, while there was “summer in April” in the Alpine country. GeoSphere Austria expects the country to be heading towards a hotter summer season also in 2024. 

Already in June, the probability of above-average temperatures is 60 percent.

In July, above-average temperatures will occur in about 60 percent of the cases. The probability of average temperatures is 20 percent, the same as the chance of below-average temperatures. 

The probability of above-average temperatures in August is just under 80 percent. Average temperatures occur in about a quarter of the cases, and the likelihood of below-average temperatures is less than 10 percent.

READ ALSO: What is Austria’s official emergency-warning phone app and do I need it?

The institute does point out that a seasonal forecast is not an exact forecast in the sense of a 3-day overview but a “rough estimate of the average temperatures conditions in the Eastern Alps”. 

It may seem counterintuitive to think that Austria could be heading for a summer of drought and heavy rains. Still, experts explain that the hotter temperatures make extreme events more likely.

And Austria is more affected by warming than the global average, mainly because it is located in the middle of the continent, and land masses warm up faster than oceans. 

Because of that, the Alpine Republic has already been 2C warmer on average over the last 30 years, almost twice as much as the global temperature increase compared to pre-industrial times.

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