On August 23rd, the weather played a trick on us. We enjoyed the beautiful sea of fog in the sun on the Fonalpstock - but flying was out of the question.
We asked weather expert Thomas Bucheli why we were in/over the soup.
"It was to be feared that it would be a tough affair today," said Mr. Bucheli. In the Meteo broadcast on August 22nd, he expressed caution about the clearing up. The clearing up process did take place, but it came from the north and was slow in the foothills of the Alps.
He explains the (presumed) reasons for this tough situation as follows: "A strong and persistent inversion plus a bise (which was actually a bit stronger today than expected yesterday - or rather: the weakening of the bise and wind shift unfortunately only starts to take effect at night) only leads to a slow reduction in the excess pressure from the north, which means that the sauce is still being pressed against the Alps. That's why the Alpine foothills were pretty flooded today."
The above factors also meant that the moisture in the base layer of precipitation simply could not (yet) be removed at the beginning of the week.
Mr. Bucheli continues: "This thick fog is very unusual for this time of year - or as we say: Out of Climatology. So there is another factor for this underestimation of the fog: We meteorologists are still in the middle of summer mode with our thinking... and are having trouble switching it to autumn on August 23rd..."
And adds: "In our office we have definitely changed our "thinking" since yesterday and are now acting as if it were October...!"
Please Mr. Bucheli, let us enjoy the summer a little longer...
