Up to 50 liters of rain per square meter have accumulated in Austria since Wednesday morning until Friday noon. But only at low altitudes, at higher altitudes, the precipitation arrived as snow on the ground, according to Geosphere Austria (formerly ZAMG). So it snowed in large parts of the mountains and in the Waldviertel. The amounts of precipitation so far would correspond to those in an average April, summed up Geosphere climatologist Alexander Orlik.
“It rained around 50 liters per square meter in Klagenfurt, Graz and St. Pölten, for example, around 40 in Bregenz, Salzburg, Vienna, Eisenstadt and around 30 liters per square meter in Linz and Innsbruck,” read Orlik’s preliminary balance sheet . It was white at higher altitudes: 14 centimeters of fresh snow lay, for example, on Friday morning in Mariazell in Styria (864 meters above sea level). Such amounts of fresh snow in 24 hours occur here in April on average every three to four years. There was seven centimeters of fresh snow in Dellach in the Drautal at 628 meters above sea level, where such amounts of fresh snow occur in 24 hours in April on average every six to seven years.
40 centimeters of fresh snow lay early on Friday morning at the Rudolfshütte in the Hohe Tauern in Salzburg (2,317 meters above sea level). 60 centimeters of fresh snow lay on the Villacher Alpe in Carinthia at 2,117 meters above sea level, an event that only occurs in April every 20 years.
After all, the precipitation of the past few days has reduced the deficit in the eastern half of Austria, which has been significantly too dry in the past few months. In March, Grossenzersdorf and Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria recorded a precipitation deficit of around 50 percent since the beginning of the year. Now only 20 to 25 percent are missing from the average amount of precipitation from the beginning of January to the end of April. In western Austria, the amount of precipitation is currently around 15 to 25 percent below the average, similar to March.
In Kufstein, for example, there have been 250 liters per square meter since the beginning of the year, and the average here from January to mid-April is 300 liters per square meter (minus 15 percent). The amount of precipitation from January to mid-April is now above average in the area from Lower Carinthia to large parts of Styria to southern Burgenland.
But the precipitation is not over yet: According to Geosphere Austria, it will rain and snow on Friday and Saturday night, especially in the north and east of Austria, sometimes heavily. The snow line is between 500 and 1,100 meters. In the west and south of Austria, on the other hand, there are only a few showers and sometimes sun.
On Saturday clouds will prevail and it can rain at least occasionally everywhere, most often on the north side of the Alps and in eastern Austria. However, the amount of rain is significantly lower than last time. The snow line is between 500 and 1,000 meters. According to the forecast, there will be a lot of clouds on Sunday, only in between sun and some rain or snowfall, with a snowfall limit of 1,100 to 1,400 meters.