Re: Austrian Weather

Joe

I can tell you from first hand experience that it's exciting!!

BC (Before Children), we did a lot of summer alpine climbing. Storms were common on August afternoon/evenings.

I clearly remember being caught out half way up a mountain called the Lenzspitze in the Sass Fee area. We huddled in a dip/groove and watched all the "St Elmos's Fire" creeping around. The hairs on the backs of our necks were literally sticking up from the static charge in the air.

When the storm hit, it dumped about 150mm of snow on us in about 10 minutes.

Getting back down the ridge was interesting to say the least!

I guess we were probably at the 3500m contour at the time as the mountain was 4000m+ and we were about an hour or so off of the summit.

Without a doubt, the best place to witness these storms is the valley. Being in one tends to lead to excess washing ;-)

Cheers

Neil

Joe Hunt wrote:
"Nigel" <dgfh@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:44a2d58a_1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi ,

No but one of the other nights I did take some video- although it is mainly dark sky with flashes.

Nigel

I have often wondered what it would be like to experience one of these alpine, summer storms at altitude. Soundings normally show freezing levels around 3500m but this must be brought lower through evaporative cooling, leading to some sensational thundery snowstorms.

Nigel, take a trip up your nearest >3000m summit next time and take your camera !

Joe


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