A very intense Arctic front is moving south across Europe this weekend and is expected to bring unusually low temperatures, snow and dangerous frost into some vulnerable areas on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Some areas could experience morning temperatures well below zero, which would be potentially devastating for vineyards and agriculture. Overall, very cold days are expected across much of our continent through mid next week, while it remains mild and warm across the Iberian peninsula.
Attached is the sequence of the Arctic airmass advection across central and southern Europe from Saturday to Tuesday. A very intense outbreak of unusually cold airmass for early May pushes far south into S/E Mediterranean as well through early next week. The most extremely anomaly of temperatures will develop over central Europe.
The cold front pushes towards the Alps by late Saturday with much colder airmass spreading behind it over Germany, Benelux and France. As the high pressure system builds up behind the trough / front, clear skies with very cold nights will follow overnight to Sunday and Monday.
Details of the 850 mbar temperature anomaly across the Alps and N Mediterranean. This will likely develop snowfall very close to the lowlands across SSW Slovenia and NW Croatia, a pretty rare occurrence for early May! Followed by severe downslope Bora winds along the Adriatic coast.
Quite some fresh snow is expected over the Alps, but also at higher elevations across Apennines and Dinaric mountain range across WNW Balkan peninsula.
The significant danger of damaging frost then comes on Monday and Tuesday into parts of Italy and Balkan peninsula, as winds decrease and a clear night will follow under still very cold airmass present over the region.
Stay alert for a dangerous weather situation with potentially damaging morning frosts across parts of France, Germany, W Czech Republic, Benelux, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Balkan peninsula in the coming days! We will keep you updated.