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The result is plenty of sunshine, rising temperatures every day and the first warm days of the year. At the same time, the drought persists in many regions, which is becoming increasingly problematic, especially in the country’s eastern half.
The high-pressure system INGEBORG has been in place over Central Europe since Sunday and has dominated the weather in Austria ever since. Little will change in the coming days. The sun will prevail almost everywhere and clouds will hardly be an issue. Even Atlantic low-pressure systems with their fronts currently have no chance of reaching us, as they are deflected northwards over Scotland (Great Britain) and Norway. Only isolated fog is expected in the morning, for example in some Alpine valleys, in the eastern lowlands or around Lake Constance (at the border triangle of Austria, Germany and Switzerland). Apart from that, there is uninterrupted sunshine every day until at least the weekend.
Particularly striking: The days are getting longer and longer, and more than 11 hours of sunshine per day are already possible in the coming days. These maximum values should actually be reached in many places under the stable influence of high pressure.
The first 20 degrees of the year
With all the sunshine, temperatures will continue to rise day by day. Highs between 7 and 13 degrees are expected on Monday, with temperatures climbing further to 8 and 15 degrees on Tuesday. It will be particularly mild in the typical heat islands, i.e., the Inn Valley (Tyrol), Carinthia and southern Styria. By the middle of the week, i.e. on Wednesday, double-digit highs are expected throughout Austria – between 10 and 17 degrees. It could be even warmer on Thursday and Friday: For the first time this year, 20 degrees is possible in some regions. The Graz Basin (Styria), the Vienna Basin (Lower Austria/Vienna), and parts of Carinthia have the best chance of achieving this early spring value.
For comparison: The highest value of the year so far was measured on 28 January – at that time the thermometer in Schönau an der Enns (southern Upper Austria) showed 19.1 degrees thanks to the foehn wind. In recent years, the 20-degree mark has often been reached in February, occasionally even in January. As late as this year, the last year was 2018, when you had to wait until 3 April before the 20-degree mark was exceeded for the first time. A look at the current climate average (1991-2020) for the Austrian provincial capitals shows that usually, the 20-degree threshold is not reached until 17 March at the earliest in Graz, while in Bregenz (Vorarlberg) it is actually not until 5 April on average. Therefore, a 20-degree day in the first week of March would be a clear exception – in Linz (Upper Austria), even the earliest 20-degree day to date, 12 March 2020, could be shaken.
Hardly any rain in sight
The flip side of the stable high pressure situation is the persistent drought, which has been a major issue in many regions of Austria since the beginning of the year. The situation will remain tense in the coming days: According to the current forecast, the subsequent significant precipitation is not expected until around 10 March. Even then, rain showers or widespread rain are only possible in the western and southern parts of the country. It is currently very uncertain whether any significant amounts of precipitation will reach the dry eastern half of Austria. The drought mainly affects upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna, and Upper Styria. In these regions, between 70 and 90 percent of the usual precipitation is already missing in the first few weeks of the year. Reichenau an der Rax (Lower Austria) provides a particularly drastic example: The precipitation deficit is currently around 93 percent. Weather developments over the coming weeks will determine whether the situation eases in time – or whether the drought will remain a significant issue in spring.
- source: wetter.at/picture: Image by Willfried Wende from Pixabay
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