It remains mild

20.6 degrees: Styrian town cracks the sunny mark

Spring will soon officially arrive in the country - at the moment it is offering a foretaste in some places.(Bild: Blickfang - stock.adobe.com)

Meteorologically it's already spring, but in terms of the calendar it won't be for another two weeks - but Mooslandl in Styria didn't let that put it off on Wednesday. 20.6 degrees were measured there in the afternoon. In the next few days, temperatures of up to 22 degrees are possible in Austria.

The unique temperature of over 20 degrees for Wednesday was recorded by GeoSphere Austria in bright sunshine at around 3 pm - and was even mentioned on "ZiB 2". Thursday is also set to be spring-like warm and sunny throughout Styria, with temperatures around the 20 degree mark set to continue for the rest of the week.

In the rest of Austria, too, the mark could climb to more than 20 degrees, in some places even up to 22 degrees thanks to the Föhn wind. It will be bright and sunny in large parts of the country, but from Friday onwards, Sahara dust could turn the sky milky white at times. It will remain mildest in the east - even at the beginning of next week.

Winter was far too mild and too dry
As much as many are looking forward to the sun and warmth after the gloomy months, it is worrying that this winter was far too mild and unusually dry. "It was the driest winter in 28 years - since the winter of 1996/97 - and one of the ten driest winters in recorded history," explained Alexander Orlik from GeoSphere Austria at the end of February.

In terms of precipitation, the low snowfall in the valley and on the mountains was striking. "It rarely snowed at low altitudes in Austria and any snow that fell soon melted again. It didn't snow often on the mountains either, but it was cold enough here for the snow to last a long time," reported the climatologist.