Avalanche

Overnight it had snowed another 20cm but it was much heavier than yesterday, the temperature only being at 0°C. The trees and bushes are all weighed down and threatening to break. The avalanche warning level in the Alps is at its second-highest level. Other parts of Bavaria are worse off.

The snow is so heavy that it compacts straight away, naturally further compacting the snow it lands on. One could probably build a snowman by simply cutting out blocks.

The roads are totally free and I even checked Memmingen airport and saw things looked normal. The 7:00 am Ryanair Stanstead flight had taken off. Would have been the flight my son would have been on if he had been over for the weekend, which he would have loved to have been but holiday entitlement/work doesn't allow it just for the moment. We did however in the evening before, have a good long chat on the phone as he jogged his way around Worthing on his several times a week 10 mile runs. He's working up to a half marathon. Back in July, he had just started working up to 5km..

It was still snowing lightly when Angie set off for a ride in the morning but returned after 20 minutes as it was simply too much for Luna who could barely move and even for the horses it was hard work.

I did two hours of snow "blowing" but it was extremely hard work as the snow simply moved across the paved paths like ice flows and what got into the works was so heavy it was only "Blown" a meter. I did manage to clear at least enough for Angie's car to get out of the garage and to the road which she did in the evening to have a sauna. She just had to drive backwards the 100 metres to the road as I couldn't clear enough room to turn around!

In the Blip, one can see the problem. It was taken at 8:00 am and shows the avalanches from the roof. At the very left bottom of the section on the roof that that has fallen, you can see something dark sticking out of the snow. It's an avalanche "stopper" so that it doesn't happen above the front door. The pile in front of the large windows is a good 1 meter high, partly what I had blown there on Saturday and the avalanche material.

Just hope the cats and dogs stay away from prowling around along the side of the house looking for wildbirds. Here the snow means more peanuts - see extra photo