Winter wonderland: A metre of fresh snow falls in Austria

Are you patiently waiting for winter to arrive and the first snow to fall? We'll have you dreaming of a winter wonderland with these spectacular snow shots!

In Austria, last weekend got off to a wintry start as a winter wonderland blanketed the landscape.

From Thursday evening, November 16th, it snowed for 30 hours straight in parts of Austria. In the Arlberg region, just over 3 feet of fresh snow accumulated as a result. You can see the constant snow on the WeatherRadar below.

A north-westerly air flow was responsible for the large amount of fresh snow. Cool, moist air from the North Atlantic was pushed towards the northern Alps by a strong north-westerly wind. In this sort of setup, most of the snow typically accumulates in the Bregenzerwald and on the Arlberg.

In the Bregenzerwald, Lake Constance also played a small role. As the lowest layers of surface airbrush over the water over a period of time with a north-westerly orientation, the air can absorb additional moisture, producing lake-effect snow.

However, on this occasion, the surface wind was blowing more from the west, rather than the northwest, so the set-up for greater amounts of snow was not optimal, and only played a minor role in the accumulation of snow.