Winter is coming !

[Tender Branson]

Wed/Thu and Fri here.

Temps will be down from 18-25°C (64-77°F) right now to -5 to +5°C (23-41°F).

Some areas to get 50cm (1-2 feet) of fresh snow, glaciers will get 100-150cm (3-5 feet).

Ironically, the mandatory winter-tire rule in Austria only starts on November 1 - but it virtually always snows in October already for the first time.

And then there's the people on the streets with their summer tires who drive no more than 20 mph and block the whole traffic.

I changed my tires yesterday already ( => reads the weather report).

[Tender Branson]

Here's the snow map:



The weather report now says 20-60 cm (8 inches to 2 feet) of snow where I live (much more on the mountains) until Friday.

I guess the snow will be gone quickly though, because it's still too wet and temps will pick up again next week. But trees might break down because of all the snow on them, since they still have many leaves on them.

Will post pictures later (now it's still nice outside with semi-blue sky).

[Tender Branson]

My place a few days ago (live webcam):



Now:

[Tender Branson]

I have never seen that much snow in my life.  

Here it snows usually once MAYBE twice a year.  Last year I don't even think it snowed at all.  

I haven't actually been below 0 degrees Fahrenheit before.  

Sure, because you are from SC.

But in fact, it's not really that much snow. Yet. Usually we get 1 feet on the ground in Dec. to Feb.

In the city, there's no snow at all on the streets and on the fields nearby there's only 1 or 2 inches or so, which was already gone yesterday after a few hours - because it's still way too wet and the temps have risen again.

The picture above with the snowy hills at the bottom of the picture is actually taken at an altitude of 1000 meters, whereas the city is only on 750 meters.

It got ca. 5-10 inches on that altitude.

On the mountains (which you can see on the earlier picture), about 1-2 feet of snow fell. But you can only see this when the mist and clouds are gone later.

On the Kitzsteinhorn glacier (that pyramid-like mountain in the distance on the upper left side of the earlier picture), it got about 3-4 feet of snow (but that's between 2500-3000 meters altitude).

I post pictures later when all the clouds are gone (which should produce a great snowy fall panorama).