'Siberian cold': Austria's icy spell to continue with double-digit minus temperatures this weekend

Austria was in the grip of a period of sub-zero weather on Friday with the big chill forecast to continue over the weekend. Thermometers could dip well below minus 20C.
Austria has been hit by icy cold temperatures for much of the week.
Temperatures on Friday morning dipped to -22C in Dobersberg, a low lying town near the German border in the north east.
Ein paar Kälte-Infos für die Tage ab Donnerstag:
Im Bild die Temperatur in 1500 m Höhe. Man sieht, dass Österreich nur am Rand der kältesten Luft liegt. Aber auch bei uns wird es eisig kalt. In 2000 m Höhe z.B. -21 Grad am Schneeberg. /1 pic.twitter.com/fNfyGk3EQ7
— Manuel Oberhuber (@manu_bx) February 9, 2021
The mercury was expected to rise slightly throughout the day to a cool -16C tonight.
The icy temperatures in the low-lying provinces of Bergenland, Carinthia and Styria felt much colder than the thermometer readings due to gusting winds of up to 40km/h.
Dobersberg’s low was expected to be matched on Friday night in St Jakob in Defereggen which stands at 1,400m altitude in mountainous East Tyrol near the Italian border.
On Saturday night, the temperature could plummet to -24C.
The cold temperatures are thanks to a blanket of cold air lying over central and eastern Europe, the result of a high pressure area centred on Norway.
Vienna remained at a relatively balmy -10C on Friday morning despite being less than two hours from frigid Dobersberg.
Reports from the ground record real temperatures closer to minus six.
The record books have still to be challenged. The longest run of consecutive days below freezing in Vienna was 48, which took place in the winter of 1890/91.
In more recent times, the longest run was 14 days in January 2012.
The same year Tannheim in Tyrol, which lies at just over a thousand metres, hit -28.9C.
Comments
See Also
Austria has been hit by icy cold temperatures for much of the week.
Temperatures on Friday morning dipped to -22C in Dobersberg, a low lying town near the German border in the north east.
Ein paar Kälte-Infos für die Tage ab Donnerstag:
— Manuel Oberhuber (@manu_bx) February 9, 2021
Im Bild die Temperatur in 1500 m Höhe. Man sieht, dass Österreich nur am Rand der kältesten Luft liegt. Aber auch bei uns wird es eisig kalt. In 2000 m Höhe z.B. -21 Grad am Schneeberg. /1 pic.twitter.com/fNfyGk3EQ7
The mercury was expected to rise slightly throughout the day to a cool -16C tonight.
The icy temperatures in the low-lying provinces of Bergenland, Carinthia and Styria felt much colder than the thermometer readings due to gusting winds of up to 40km/h.
Dobersberg’s low was expected to be matched on Friday night in St Jakob in Defereggen which stands at 1,400m altitude in mountainous East Tyrol near the Italian border.
On Saturday night, the temperature could plummet to -24C.
The cold temperatures are thanks to a blanket of cold air lying over central and eastern Europe, the result of a high pressure area centred on Norway.
Vienna remained at a relatively balmy -10C on Friday morning despite being less than two hours from frigid Dobersberg.
Reports from the ground record real temperatures closer to minus six.
The record books have still to be challenged. The longest run of consecutive days below freezing in Vienna was 48, which took place in the winter of 1890/91.
In more recent times, the longest run was 14 days in January 2012.
The same year Tannheim in Tyrol, which lies at just over a thousand metres, hit -28.9C.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.