Extreme heat in the Alps! Spring weather in midwinter! Is climate change to blame?

Extremely mild air in the Alps leads to exceptional warmth with numerous weather records in the middle of winter. The temperatures sometimes rose above 20 degrees. Is this a result of climate change or just normal weather variability?

Alps
View of the snow-free Inn Valley in Tyrol (Photo Markus Köss from 04.02.2024)

Since last weekend, there has been an extraordinary heat phase in the Alps for the beginning of February. The temperatures are reminiscent of spring and the middle of high winter. There were new weather records at numerous weather stations. Not only the days are extremely mild, but also the nights are often cool.

Although there were large amounts of precipitation in December and also partly in January, which also fell again and again as snow at the higher altitudes, there is no more snow below 1000 meters. In some cases, the snow cover has thawed or broken down to 1500-1800 meters.

No wonder with these temperatures: On Monday (5. February) in Austria, the 20-degree mark was exceeded at eight stations. The frontrunner was the airport in Graz with 21.3°C.

Records were pulverised

Numerous decade records were broken, i.e. in the first third of February it has never been so warm since the beginning of the measurement! The old records were almost pulverised at many stations, in Graz, for example, by almost 4 degrees above the old record of 17.6°C. A clear indication of man-made climate change: records are no longer scarce and only broken at individual stations.

Another indication that breaks out of the usual variability in the weather: It was unusually mild not only on one or two days, the unusual heat extends over the whole week! Due to föhn, the spring-like weather is maintained until the weekend, at least on the north side of the Alps. At the edge of the Alps, temperatures of up to 20 degrees are still possible.

In South Tyrol, there were over 20 degrees in the Vinschgau in Latsch at an altitude of over 600 meters for three consecutive days. This has never happened in the whole of South Tyrol in winter. And the nights were also more reminiscent of summer: On the night of Monday, it only cooled down to 14.7 degrees in Latsch, probably the warmest winter night in the Alps since the beginning of measurements.

Example Garmisch-Partenkirchen (719m): There was on Saturday (3. February) with 17.3°C a new temperature record for the first decade of February. But that's not all: Just two days later, on Monday (5. February), this record was already broken again, this time there was 17.4°C. This is also typical in times of global warming, the heat records are often broken again shortly afterwards.

In the cross-country mecca in Seefeld in Tyrol, there are still almost 30 centimeters of snow (far below average for the beginning of February), but here, too, there were maximum temperatures above 13°C for three days in a row at almost 1200 meters altitude. We are currently in the climatologically coldest time of the year. The fact that there is still snow here is thanks to the dry air and the still relatively cold and clear nights.

Not so high temperatures without climate change

Although the weather has a huge natural variability and there used to be very mild phases in winter, climate change can be determined even in such a heat phase, as is currently in the Alps. Almost only heat records are broken and these are then often almost pulverised.

In addition, records are often broken again after a short time and the extreme heat persists for a longer period of time. So it doesn't always take the major media events such as droughts, heavy rain and forest fires to document the advancing climate change!