It has been an active weather pattern over Europe with major cold pushing into eastern and central areas. The collision of moisture streaming north from the Med and incoming cold over the Alps, major snowfall has been a result, especially over the Italian and Austrian Alps. While a mammoth high steers Siberian air across Russian down into the Ukraine and Romania as well as Poland and Germany, the UK and Ireland is under the gun of gales and heavy rain yet again. While rain and wind is probably having the biggest impact overall, cold air over Scotland has brought yet more heavy snowfall to the Scottish Highlands with blizzard conditions shutting down ski resorts. Snow is mixing down to lower levels too as the air temp drops to between 0-2C this evening.

(TOP IMAGE: Courtesy of Michael van der Poel

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Check out the ECMWF surface analysis for early today and note the strength of the high over Russia (below). Incredibly strong and as you would expect, it’s rather cold beneath it.

Here was the visible satellite from earlier and note the swirl northwest of Scotland representative of the deep 950mb low with it’s associated thick plume of cloud that’s driving a LOT of moisture north along it’s frontal boundary into the UK. This will only worsen the already aggravated flood situation. Clear skies and snow cover can be seen in the northeast of the continent under that powerful 1056mb Siberian high.

As moist southerly winds blowing up from the Med and Siberian air converged and upsloped the Italian and Austrian Alps, mammoth snowfalls in the past 24 to 26 hours was the result.

Check out of these incredible shots.

Check out this great comparison shot following the mammoth dump in the Austrian Alps! Courtesy of Anthony Sagliani.

Following recent heavy snowfall across eastern and southeast Europe, the coldest air of winter has settled into Moscow, Kiev and Bucharest, though snows continue across Romania and Bulgaria.

Under clear skies, light winds and a 1056mb high centred over northwest Russia, night lows dropped to -26C yesterday morning in Moscow, the coldest morning yet. By day, it’s not warming above -16C. It’s currently -13C in the conflicted city of Kiev where protesters and military battle. After the sun goes down, the thermometer quickly drops below -20C.

Here was the scene this evening at rush hour as the sun set over a frozen Moscow where the temperature was -14C. Now it’s dark and heading for -25C again.

Tomorrow morning lows off ECMWF, not quite as cold thanks to milder Atlantic air advancing into W Europe.

Low pressure continues to spin over the UK through this weekend. Another arrives early next week bringing another round of the same thing, you guessed it.. wind, rain and likely flood problems.

ECMWF surface

48 hrs

90

126

The deepening trough over the Atlantic courtesy of the +NAO is sending our lows more in from the southwest as you can see in the models next week.

As expected the western Europe snow cover has been extended slightly with higher ground of the UK now turning white but for most, it’s a case of where’s the snow this year!!

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Tags: Alpine snow, Austrian Alps, cold, europe snow, European Alps snow, Italian Alps