The snowiest region of Tirol

PillerseeTal is the snowiest region of Tirol. This unique selling point has a bearing on the booking-relevant category “snow guarantee” and is thus of great relevance. Within PillerseeTal, the town of Hochfilzen clearly stands out. It is the snowiest of all permanently populated townships in all of the state of Tirol. The annual Biathlon World Cup and the recurring Biathlon World Championships are major winter sports events. They carry the messages of the “snow pocket” PillerseeTal and its Snow-Hotspot Hochfilzen into the source markets. Both major events expose PillerseeTal to great global media cover, which sees the region open up for a limited time.

Below you’ll find snow measurements from Hochfilzen, Fieberbrunn, St. Ulrich am Pillersee and Waidring. The snow measurement series will be analysed, going as far back as the data quality permits. There are no “tactical” omissions – nothing is hidden or rewritten. The official measurement data are converted 1:1 into illustrative images and analysed with established statistical methods (“time series analyses”). In St. Jakob in Haus, no official measurement data are collected. As the measuring station “St. Ulrich am Pillersee” is only a few kilometres from St. Jakob, the “Nuarach” data can serve as a solid guideline for St. Jakob.

Hochfilzen clearly emerges as the snowiest township, leaving behind the other townships in Tirol by far. Both in comparison to the data since 1895 as well as currently in the 30-year average, Hochfilzen with 643 centimetres of fresh snow tops higher-located townships such as Obertilliach (388 cm) or Leutasch (515 cm).

The measurement series from the ZAMG-stations “Hahnenkamm” and “Schmittenhöhe”, which virtually “frame” the area of PillerseeTal, correlate very well. Thus the data from the Schmittenhöhe can be used to take a look back to the pioneering time of skiing in PillerseeTal.

The following illustration shows the winter temperatures on Schmittenhöhe (1,954 m) at Zell am See over the last 123 years (1895/96 to 2017/18). The winters have become milder since the beginning of Alpine skiing. The 10-year gliding average (green curve) shows the fast temperature rise from the 1960s until the beginning of the 1990s, but also the cooling off in the last almost two and a half decades. It is generally assumed that the snowline rises by 100 m for every 0.65 degrees Celsius warming. From this we can deduce – roughly and somewhat simplified – that the natural snowline on the mountainsides in Zell am See as well as in Pillerseetal was higher by less than 80 metres in the last 10 years than on the 123-year average.

With the aid of renowned experts from the network www.zukunft-skisport.at it was attempted to extend the rather short measurement series (since 1993/94) from Kitzbühel’s Hahnenkamm with data from the neighbouring ZAMG-station Schmittenhöhe (distance: 29 km beeline). The two measurement series correlate very well with a coefficient of determination of r² = 0.991. The calculations are finding approval by, among others, renowned Tirolean meteorologist and hydrologist Dr. Wolfgang Gattermayr, from Univ.-Prof. em. Dr. Michael Kuhn and from Innsbruck freelance meteorologist Mag. Christian Zenkl.

In the last 30 years, winters on Kitzbühel’s Hahnenkamm have become cooler in the linear trend (linear regression) by about 1.4 degrees Celsius – from around 2.1 to around 3.5 degrees Celsius. Over the last 50 years (1968/69 to 2017/18) no warming trend can be observed on Kitzbühel’s Hahnenkamm.

Note.: The ZAMG-station “Schmittenhöhe” is just a few kilometres beeline south-east of PillerseeTal observed

The Alpine summers have in the last four decades become clearly warmer across the Alps - and they have become significantly sunnier. Good conditions for further touristic development of the Alpine summers.

The Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) does not operate any measuring stations at the higher altitudes of PillerseeTal – but do so on nearby Kitzbühel’s
Hahnenkamm. This station is located on the Ehrenbachhöhe (area of mountain station Fleckalmbahn) at 1,802 m above sea level. The ZAMG-station
”Hahnenkamm” is located just a few kilometres beeline south-west of PillerseeTal.
The measurement series exists since winter 1993/94. ZAMG may have collected measuring data already since 1993, but in summer 1993 a small-scale relocation of the station took place. The data before 1993 would have to be “homogenized” by the ZAMG in order to compare them with current data. This has not yet happened to date.

Note: Winter is considered – as is customary in meteorology – the timespan from 1 December until 28 February (for leap years: 29).