The same northerly plunge of cold air that has given us the recent frosty nights has brought some very early snowfall to parts of Europe. Austria and Germany were worst affected, with Munich having its first October snow for over twenty years. A spokesperson for the Vienna Meteorology Centre said that eastern Austria had not had such a snowfall so early in the season for sixty years.
Some major German and Austrian roads were either closed or snarled up with miles of traffic jams, following a spate of accidents. Power outages even affected some areas where the snow had brought down branches onto power lines.
Meanwhile in the USA the state of California is experiencing unseasonably high temperatures. To add to this some areas have not seen any significant rain since March and drought conditions in general are said to have been in existence for several years now. This has helped a rash of wildfires to break out. These fires have become very serious recently, being fanned by Santa Ana winds.
Santa Ana is the name given to winds that are extremely drying because the air not only originates in the desert regions, but becomes even drier and warmer as the air crosses the mountains. The winds also tend to be turbulent and very gusty.
Some gusts, as high as 40 to 50 mph, have been fanning the flames and now more than 1,400 fire-fighters are tackling the blazes along with 91 fire engines, 11 helicopters and several other water-carrying aircraft. A few houses have already been destroyed but many more are threatened, leading to thousands of residents being evacuated. Strong and gusty winds are forecast for another few days yet so the situation could easily worsen before it gets better.
