h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Tavaron.

When was your picture taken?

By now, you may have more snow on the ground, just as I do in Boston (about twelve inches).

Or not.

Winters can be strange. We didn't know a nor'easter was coming at us until it was almost here.

I've been to Austria twice, both times in the Summer. No, I never came across Julie Andrews.

Snow just is. We cope with it as best we can if we have to go out on errands.

Nice picture.

The pictures were taken on December 4th. It was one of the two or three days of snow we had this year. Now we are back to cold, wet and foggy. Because of climate change we hardly get any snow anymore in my area (close to Vienna).

In the south of Austria however climate change seems to get them more wet air from the sea (Italy) and so they now have huge amounts of snow. I think there was one meter coming down in a night and quite a few places were inaccessible for a while and trees fell on the power lines and there were avalanches and all. Some farms are still not accessible after a week, as far as I understood.


... by the way, only about 1 minute after I stopped for one of these photos I saw a fox hunting in the fields. A real pity that I couldn't stop at that moment to take a picture.

Wow! Foxes are so hard to photograph, aren't they? We've seen only glimpses of them at night.

It was hoppig around in the field, probably trying to catch a mouse. The sun only just came up behind the mountain, so it was still twilight but not completely dark. But you are right, they are mostly around at night.

It's always good to catch glimpses and know they're still there.

Yes
Foxes are really hard to photograph
http://twitter.com/BrianSmith950/status/1325070876686082049/photo/1

How to explain why the Vienna area would get so little snow, when some parts of Austria get clobbered with it? Is it elevation? Less precipitation generally? A fluke?

(I'm resisting the urge to give a link.)

We are at a much lower altitude here, so temperatures are higher, therefore we don't get so much snow. Also through climate change we don't get so much rain which could turn into snow.
In the south they get winds from Italy (as I said) which brings moisture from the sea which gets them snow. Thisair does not get to Vienna because the alps are in the way (runnung east to west through Austria).

If we around here get snow the weather usually comes from eastern Europe and Russia.

I hope that explains things.