Austrian Fulbright Dreams

The new year is here and my sabbatical begins officially on January 7th.  I'm pretty excited as I will be serving as the Fulbright Visiting Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Innsbruck beginning on March 1st.  The appointment will involve teaching classes in atmospheric and related sciences, as well as forging research ties with their Institute of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences. 

We depart in about two weeks and will be living in Innsbruck for about 6 months.  We have run most of the gauntlet needed to move temporarily to Austria, but still have a few issues to take care of.  Perhaps most challenging was getting a packing system down that will allow us to get all of our gear to Innsbruck in two checked bags and a carry on.  Sadly, I need to leave my skate gear at home, but may rent for a couple of days to try out the 2019 Nordic World Championship track in Seefeld, just outside of Innsbruck. 

I've been watching the Innsbruck area web cams and ski reports for a few weeks and have been getting nervous as the snowfall has seemed fair at best so far and non-existent in the lower elevations.  However, a storm has finally descended on the area and there's some white now even in town. 

Source: https://www.innsbruck.info/en/innsbruck-city/webcams.html

The forecasts are looking optimistic.  I haven't dialed in my software yet for the Alps, but the GFS loop below shows a prolonged period of moist northerly flow impinging on the eastern Alps over the next few days. 

Water equivalents produced over the next five days by the relatively low resolution GFS exceed 10 cm (4 inches) in some areas, so this should be a game changer for the Austrian ski season. 

You may be wondering what will happen to the Wasatch Weather Weenies while I am gone.  My plans are not certain, but I am anticipating doing occasional posts on Austrian skiing, culture, and weather.