Freezing rain

Where you can still expect black ice now

Snowy road in Vienna (archive photo)

(Bild: Tomschi Peter, Krone KREATIV)

Today, Sunday, was an "exceptionally slippery" day. There was freezing rain for hours at Linz Airport and in Vienna, as the severe weather center reported in the evening. Black ice warnings were still in place for some federal states.

These were Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria, Burgenland and Styria late on Sunday evening. According to the severe weather center (UWZ), freezing rain was reported for hours at Linz Airport and Vienna. That was an unusually high amount. In Linz, the long-term average is around 13 hours of freezing rain per year, in Vienna only six.

Temperatures in the lowlands around the Danube region were just below 0 degrees. In Upper Austria, one to two millimetres of rain fell per hour on Sunday. "Considerable ice sheets" had formed, reported meteorologist Matthias Markel on Platform X.

Here you can see the post about the freezing rain.

Grains of ice in Vienna
Grains of ice were reported from Vienna around midday. "A clear sign that the temperature at an altitude of around 1500 meters is around or just above 0 degrees. This phase does not last long, followed by freezing rain," the UWZ reported. The rain then continued until the evening and the ice cover continued to grow.

The snowfall came from the west during the day. Wintry conditions must still be expected on the roads and sidewalks. As ice is forming on trees and branches may break, kachelmannwetter.com recommended avoiding parks. A map was posted on Platform X showing which regions of Vienna are particularly slippery.

Here you can see the post from kachelmannwetter.com.

Snow on Tuesday
Milder air only prevailed at higher altitudes. On Sunday evening, there were still black ice warnings for Lower Austria, Vienna, parts of Burgenland and Upper Austria.

According to kachelmannwetter.com, the Föhn storm will break up in the night to Tuesday, when a cold front and snow up to the valleys are expected. There is a risk of black ice again in places throughout Austria on Wednesday and Thursday.