As winter draws closer, parts of Europe have been getting a first taste of it in the last few days. In this brief overview, we will take a look at Europe’s current weather pattern.
A well-defined low pressure system with a central pressure of 980hPa is located over eastern Scandinavia, named “MICHAEL”, transporting cold air well into central Europe at its western flank. The air also carries a lot of water, resulting in rain – and snow, higher up – to fall throughout much of Europe north of the Alps. In southwestern Germany and Switzerland, up to 120 mm of rainfall are expected by Monday, and in the mountains up to 30cm of fresh snow may come together. In the alps, snow is falling from around 1200 to 1600 meters upwards. The temperatures really aren’t the nicest, lingering just above freezing in much of northern mainland Europe.
Further north, winter has arrived with solid temperatures under freezing throughout much of Scandinavia; in Iceland and the inland of Norway and Sweden, the temperatures stay below 0°C even during daytime. In the south of Norway, Sweden and Finland, where most of the cities are located, temperatures are more like in central Europe, but do drop below freezing at night. Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, has seen its first snow cover of the season today, and snow can also be found in much of Norway, Sweden, northern Finland and the peaks of the Alps from around 1,500 to 2,000 meters upwards. Below is a map of the current snow cover in Europe.
