A little winter blast

The first snowflakes of the season fell here!

The Lienz valley floor - here a view of the Lienz Dolomites - was also white on Thursday morning.(Bild: Martin Oberbichler)

A small high-altitude low brought a touch of winter to the country on Wednesday evening. However, the amounts remained small: two to seven centimetres of fresh snow fell in the high valleys, almost 15 centimetres even in Lech am Arlberg! 

Cool, wet and with local snowfall at higher altitudes, the weather in many parts of the country came to an end on Wednesday. A high-altitude low pushed moist air from the north into the western half of Austria, with the snow line dropping to between 500 and 300 meters in the course of the evening. 

There were also greetings from Mother Hulda in Ehenbichl near Reutte in Tyrol.(Bild: Rauth)

Sleet and thin blankets of snow
However, there was still no sign of a major onset of winter: the whole thing was quickly over by midnight. The amount of snow remained low. Western valleys in particular were covered in snow, and in Lower Austria and Upper Styria there was sleet in places. 

Fine dust pollution reduced in Vienna
As can already be seen on Thursday morning, after several days of constant gray, the sun is once again prevailing in the country. After four cloudy days, Vienna is finally seeing blue skies again. According to experts from the Severe Weather Center (uwz), one of the reasons for this is the westerly wind blowing through the city at up to 40 km/h. A small plus point: the fine dust pollution of the past few days has also decreased significantly. 

Despite the sunshine, daytime highs will not exceed nine degrees. 

Working week ends with sunshine
Things are also getting friendlier towards the weekend: As early as Friday afternoon, sunshine will predominate in the country. In the morning, however, dense clouds will repeatedly move through in the north and east, bringing a few raindrops from Salzburg eastwards and a few snowflakes above 1000 meters. The lowest temperatures will be between minus 4 and plus 6 degrees, with daytime highs between 5 and 11 degrees.

According to meteorologists from GeoSphere Austria, the weather on Saturday will be perfect for a day outdoors: it will be calm and bright and sunny. Early temperatures will range from minus 5 degrees to plus 3 degrees, with daily highs from 5 to 13 degrees, with the west likely to be the warmest.

Precipitation again from Sunday
The first precipitation will begin on Sunday evening between Vorarlberg and the Innkreis. In the morning, however, the sun should still be shining widely. From midday, the clouds will thicken in the west and north. Up to 12 degrees are possible in the country.