Power cuts, closures, space missions: it snowed heavily in western Styria on Monday, especially on the Koralpe and the pack. “I’ve never experienced anything like this,” says the head of the local road maintenance service.
Hours of rain, gloomy mood: Monday could have been a gloomy November day in Graz and many other regions in Styria. In general, there was no fresh snow below 800 meters above sea level.
On the other hand, Frau Holle was very active at higher altitudes in western Eggenmark. It snowed heavily and another 30 centimeters could be added from one day to the next. Up to a meter of fresh snow can fall on the tops of the mountains until Tuesday afternoon!
Worry about snow breakage
This ensures that the clearing services in particular are busy. Asfinag was on the road with six vehicles on the southern section of the motorway between Unterwald and the Kalcherkogel tunnel (which was equipped with an emergency generator as a precaution). “I’ve been here for 14 years, but I’ve never seen snow like this,” reports Markus Bratschko, head of Unterwald’s motorway maintenance department. “We also have to take broken snow into account,” he prepares for the labour-intensive hours.
Fortunately, there were no accidents until the evening, but the rest areas had to be closed – chaos threatened due to trucks that could no longer drive back and forth. Some roads outside the autobahn were also closed to heavy trucks, such as the B77 over the Gaberl and the B76 over the Radlpass. Slovenia did not allow vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tons through the Spielfeld border crossing for a few hours – the drivers had to wait in an abandoned parking lot in Spielfeld.
Balready 100 firefighting operations
By 6 p.m., the fire department had about 100 vehicle and tree rescues to deal with. The focus was on the districts of Deutschlandsberg, Leibnitz and Voitsberg. The mechanics of Energie Steiermark were also alert and their number doubled to 50 in Western Styria. There were limited disturbances regionally until noon, especially in the Eibiswald area. “But the situation can get worse at night because it gets colder and snow can even come where it is still raining,” said Urs Harnik, spokesman for Energie Graz.
It remains winter
Precipitation should have decreased everywhere by Tuesday night, says Geosphere meteorologist Martin Kulmer. On Wednesday, the chance of sun is greatest in Styria, before some snow falls again in the north on Thursday. Towards the weekend, a major malfunction is announced, causing fresh snow in the Ennstal (also for ski flying on the Kulm). In the south it will remain dry and cloudy.
Source: Krone
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