There will probably not be a white Christmas this year either. The Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) predicts this with caution. The Christmas holidays in Austria have become an average of 1 to 2.5 degrees warmer in recent decades and the chance of a white Christmas has decreased by 30 to 60 percent in the lower regions.
Global warming also has a major impact on holiday weather in Austria. “Of course there are large fluctuations from year to year, but in the long term the trend towards increasingly milder temperatures at Christmas is clearly recognizable,” says Alexander Orlik of ZAMG. “For example, if you compare the average temperature on December 24, 25 and 26 in the period 1961 to 1990 with the period 1991 to 2020, the provincial capitals of Austria, for example, show a warming of around one to two and a half degrees.”
A more precise prognosis is not yet possible
Due to warming, snow has also become much rarer. Because the temperature in the lowlands of Austria is increasingly rising above zero degrees. As a result, precipitation falls faster than rain or snow melts faster. An exact forecast of the weather and snow conditions for this year’s festival is not yet possible, the ZAMG emphasized.
For the middle of next week, a very mild weather situation is currently emerging, with even on many mountains plus degrees. According to the current forecast, a cold front could bring significantly colder air to Austria shortly before the Christmas holidays.
Snow cover in provincial capitals only rarely
“The chance of a white Christmas has fallen in recent decades by 30 percent in Innsbruck, Salzburg and Graz, by 40 percent in Bregenz, Linz and Klagenfurt, by 50 percent in St. Pölten and Vienna and by 60 percent in Eisenstadt,” explains from. Orlik. Snow cover (at least one inch of snow on more than 50 percent of the observing location) on December 24, 25 or 26 has now become relatively rare in nearly all state capitals.
The chance is greatest in Innsbruck and Salzburg
Statistically, Vienna, Eisenstadt, St. Pölten and Linz only have a dense snow cover of at least one centimeter every four to six years at Christmas. Bregenz, Graz and Klagenfurt are white every three years on average. The most opportunities are in Innsbruck and Salzburg, where Christmas is statistically every two to three years.
If you’re looking for Christmas snow records, you have to look way back in the data. The weather station of Innsbruck Airport holds the Christmas record for all provincial capitals with 96 centimeters of snow on December 24, 1962. The other snow records for the provincial capitals for Christmas were 55 centimeters at Graz Airport on December 25, 1994 and 50 centimeters in St. Pölten on December 24, 1969, 47 cm in Klagenfurt 1994, 40 cm in Salzburg on December 24, 1962, 39 cm in Eisenstadt on December 24, 1969, 47 cm in Vienna Mariabrunn on December 24, 1969, 26 cm in Bregenz on December 26, 1969 and in Linz (Airport) The record high snow is 25 inches on December 25, 1969.
Cold record with minus 29 degrees
The cold records are also lagging far behind. In the Austria-wide evaluation of all ZAMG weather stations below 1400 meters above sea level, the cold record is minus 29 degrees in Tamsweg in Salzburg on the night of December 26, 1944. 1962 was also extreme. The temperature was then December 25 in Vils in the Tyrolean district of Reutte at minus 19.8 degrees.
In Kitzbühel it was minus 27.9 degrees on the night of December 24 to 25, 1962. The weather station at Salzburg Airport set the Christmas record for the whole of Austria on December 25, 2013 with a plus of 19.1 degrees.
Source: Krone
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