Now it's official: Christmas has become significantly warmer in recent years
According to ZAMG, the Christmas holidays in Austria have become an average of 1 to 2.5 degrees warmer in recent decades and the chance of a white Christmas has decreased by 30 to 60 percent at low altitudes.
Of course, Christmas weather is not spared from global warming.
"Of course there are large fluctuations from year to year, but the long-term trend towards increasingly milder temperatures at Christmas is clearly recognizable," says Alexander Orlik from the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG). "For example, if you compare the average temperature on December 24, 25 and 26 in the period from 1961 to 1990 with the period from 1991 to 2020, you can see a warming of around one to two and a half degrees in Austria's provincial capitals, for example."
Stop dreaming of a white Christmas
"The chance of a white Christmas has decreased by 30 percent in Innsbruck, Salzburg and Graz, by 40 percent in Bregenz, Linz and Klagenfurt, by 50 percent in St. Pölten and Vienna and by 60 percent in Eisenstadt over the last few decades," says ZAMG climatologist Orlik.
Christmas snow records:
Innsbruck Airport 96 centimeters of snow December 24, 1962
Graz Airport 55 cm of snow December 25, 1994
St. Pölten 50 cm of snow December 24, 1969
Klagenfurt 47 cm of snow December 24, 1994
Salzburg 40 cm of snow December 24, 1962
Eisenstadt 39 cm of snow December 24, 1969
Vienna 47 cm of snow December 24, 1969
Bregenz 26 cm of snow December 26, 1969
Linz Airport 25 cm of snow December 25, 1969
Christmas temperature records:
Cold records go back a long way. In the Austria-wide evaluation of all ZAMG weather stations below 1400 meters above sea level, the coldest record is -29.0 degrees in Tamsweg (S) on the night of 26.12.1944. 1962 was also extreme, when the highest(!) temperature on 25 December in Vils (Tyrol, Reutte district) was -19.8 °C. In Kitzbühel, it was -27.9 °C in the night from December 24 to 25, 1962.
The Christmas heat record for the whole of Austria is held by the Salzburg Airport weather station with 19.1 °C on December 25, 2013.
pro.earth conclusion:
So far so good. We keep dreaming anyway and try to convince ourselves: "Christmas doesn't have that much to do with the weather!" 💚
