7124 posts
Hi peterzier,
Your understanding of the special requirements for mountain top visits is correct. But whether you’ll be able to be dressed in shorts and shirts down in the valleys and towns is very hard to predict. If you’re lucky weather is very comfortable by late May/early June, but it can still be chilly, rainy and windy. Note that Zermatt is at high altitude, so temperatues are relatively low there. I’d surely pack some long trousers and (light fleece) sweaters too if I were you. Please find more information at myswissalps.com/weathe r.
72625 posts
Thank you for the information. I will limit the shorts and short-sleeve shirts. What confuses me, I see in Innsbruck Salzburg Garmisch temperatures today and tomorrow in the sixties/ forties with 30 and 50% chance of snow showers/ mix? I thought it has to be below 32.?
if anybody is in Austria Germany now or has been during the late October time, please inform me of how you need to dress in these areas. Thank you.
279 posts
Hi Peterzier,
Salzburg has a reputation for being wet, so good rain gear including waterproof shoes are essential. I’ve been there in both summer and winter and spent a lot of the time under an umberella. From memory, Garmisch is higher than either Innsbruck or Salzburg and should be a bit colder.
Snow fall is not dependant on the temperature at ground level, but at cloud level. Temperature decreases 1 Deg C for every 100 mtrs of altitude, so it is entirely possible to get snow showers in the valleys when conditions at altitude are right. Grindelwald had string of sunny days last month, the crocuces had bloomed, then last week got 40 cms of snow overnight. Mountains make their own weather.
Alan
72625 posts
Thanks for the additional info. I figured the cooler temps for snow were at mountain tops. I will prepare for the wet weather, but invision sunny balmy shorts weather~!
279 posts
Hope for the best – prepare for the worst 🙂