Worldloppet Weather: Cold air pushed back to Russia
Finally Europe got a small relief with freezing temperatures and a bit of snow. But how long is this slight onset of winter going to last? And, do we finally get a proper bunch of snow? Worldloppet-meteorologist, Niklas Sieger, with his weekly overview of Europe’s weather situation:
The periods of calm and sunny winter weather are definitely over. This week a few fronts pass Europa from the West to the East and especially in the North, but also in the Middle-East of Europe it has become pretty cold. -5 to -15 degrees – especially in the mountains in the Middle-East, East and North-East of Europe – at Tartu/EST for example – the winter showed us it’s strength. In the Middle of Europe there are temperatures about 0 to -5 degrees in 1500 m heigth. Race-venues like Jizirska 50 are finally able to produce enough snow to make the holding sure. But this period is over as well.
In this week the Atlantic with its mild air masses is going to take over again and pushing the cold air masses back to Russia. The middle and eastern parts of Europe will face temperatures between 0 and -5 degrees and France is going to stay at 0 degrees or a little bit more, but especially on Thursday or Friday even + 5 degrees are possible, especially in the South-West parts of France, in Switzerland and in the Austrian Alps. However, another big cold air mass like the Eastern parts of Europe faced it the last few days is not seriously in sight. There is a little hope for the time around 13th or 14th of January. Then it could get remarkable colder again – but as it seems today, this only counts for the East and Middle-East of Europe.
The fronts that are passing Europe this week are bringing a few centimetres of natural snow and above 1000 to 1500 m it is going to stay. The big snow happening is not in sight yet! As it is going to stay very mild in France and temperatures are not often falling under 0 degrees, the missing of natural snow is still a problem, specially for La Foulee Blanche, the opening race of the FIS Worldloppet Cup in two weeks (17th of Jan). But we can hope that he few centimetres of snow every single front is bringing is going to stay and supporting the artificial snow.
Niklas Sieger – Siegerwetter
