It's getting warmer and warmer

The hope of a white Christmas is melting away

(Bild: Eli Berr - stock.adobe.com)

A white Christmas in the state capitals? If you look back over the last 13 years, you will hardly find any. Since 2011, there has hardly been a day with snow cover in the state capitals. The chances of white flakes are melting away visibly, as Christmas days have been one to two degrees warmer on average in recent decades.

This is the result of an analysis by Geosphere Austria. "Although there are large fluctuations from year to year, there has been a clear trend towards increasingly milder temperatures at Christmas over the last few decades," said climatologist Alexander Orlik. "If you compare the average temperature on December 24, 25 and 26 in the period from 1961 to 1990 with the period from 1991 to 2020, you can see a warming of around one to two degrees in the provincial capitals of Austria, for example."

White festival: chance lives from around 800 meters above sea level
In the lowlands, temperatures above zero are measured more and more frequently in December. Precipitation then tends to fall as rain, and snow that has already fallen melts away more quickly than in the past. A reasonably reliable white Christmas occurs in valleys from around 800 meters above sea level. Here, too, it has become milder, but it is still often cold enough for snowfall.

A snow cover on December 24, 25 or 26 was to be expected every two to three years in most provincial capitals between 1961 and 1990, and every one to two years in Innsbruck. In the years 1991 to 2020, they occurred on average every two to three years on the three Christmas holidays in Innsbruck. In Graz, Klagenfurt and Salzburg it was every three to four years and in Vienna, Eisenstadt, St. Pölten, Linz and Bregenz every four to six years.

Since 2011, there have been almost no white Christmas days at low altitudes in Austria.

Klimatologe Alexander Orlik

Recent "phase with very little snow"
In the recent past, the climatologist has observed "even a phase with very little snow": "Since 2011, there have been almost no white Christmas days at low altitudes in Austria," says Orlik. Since then, for example, there has only been a blanket of snow in the provincial capitals in Innsbruck in 2011, Vienna and Eisenstadt in 2012, Salzburg in 2014, Innsbruck in 2020 and Vienna, Graz and Klagenfurt in 2021. In this context, snow cover means at least one centimeter of snow at more than 50 percent of the observed location.

St. Pölten last saw snow at Christmas 17 years ago
The provincial capital with the longest current "green streak" is St. Pölten. The last time there was a blanket of snow at least one centimeter high on at least one Christmas Day (24 or 25 or 26 December) was in 2007. This was last the case in Linz and Bregenz in 2010, in Eisenstadt in 2012, in Salzburg in 2014, in Innsbruck in 2020 and in Vienna, Graz and Klagenfurt in 2021.

Christmas snow records

• Innsbruck Airport: 96 centimeters on 24 December 1962
• Graz Airport: 55 centimeters on 25 December 1994
• St. Pölten: 50 centimeters on 24 December 1969
• Klagenfurt: 47 centimeters on December 24, 1994
• Salzburg: 40 centimeters on December 24, 1962,
• Eisenstadt: 39 centimeters on December 24, 1969
• Vienna Mariabrunn: 47 centimeters on December 24, 1969
• Bregenz: 26 centimeters on 26 December 1969
• Linz (airport): 25 centimeters on December 25, 1969

Extreme values from just under minus 30 to almost plus 20 degrees
The lowest values are also far behind. In the Austria-wide evaluation of all Geosphere weather stations below 1400 meters above sea level, the coldest record of minus 29 degrees was measured in Tamsweg (Salzburg) on the night of 26 December 1944. 1962 was also extreme, when the highest(!) temperature on December 25 in Vils (Tyrol, Reutte district) was minus 19.8 degrees. In Kitzbühel, it was minus 27.9 degrees on the night of December 25, 1962. The Christmas heat record is held by the Salzburg Airport weather station with 19.1 degrees on December 25, 2013.

White Christmas possible from around 1000 meters above sea level
It is not yet possible to say what the Christmas weather and snow conditions will look like this year, the experts emphasize. A lot is still possible in the next two weeks, especially at low altitudes. But from an altitude of around 1000 meters above sea level, there is already a blanket of snow in many regions - at least that could last until Christmas from the current perspective.