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15. 10. 09. - 15:00

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15. 10. 09. - 15:00

Most new snow to melt next week

By David Rogers

Up to 90 centimetres of snow have fallen in the mountains in Salzburg, and more is expected, but weather forecasters are predicting most of it will melt next week.

Claudia Riedl from the Central Agency for Meteorology and Geodynamics’ (ZAMG) office in Salzburg said today (Thurs) some places in the province’s mountains had 90 centimetres of snow on the ground this morning and another 30 to 40 would fall above 800 metres tomorrow and Saturday.

She added she had received many calls from ski-lift operators asking her if it would be safe to begin the coming ski season in the near future.

Riedl said she had advised them not to since a warm "föhn" of chinook wind from the south would raise temperatures and cause all snow below 2,000 metres to melt beginning in the middle of next week. The air temperature at 3,000 metres, she claimed, would be plus four degrees by then.

Only glacier skiing areas would be safe from the warmer air, she noted.

Riedl also reported that the snow had not caused many traffic problems in the province, with chains mandatory on only a few highways.

ZAMG’s headquarters in Vienna had said early this week that high wind would accompany the snow, with gusts of up to 150 kilometres an hour already reported on the Schneeberg in Lower Austria and gusts of more than 100 kilometres an hour in many areas.

Such high winds, the agency said, were recorded on average only once every 25 years. It warned that Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland would have high winds of up to 80 kilometres an hour today.

Austrian Times

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