A southerly wind called the Sirocco is blowing. It comes all the way from the Sahara desert, and it brings sand. Ali got this pic this morning.
It’s the same all over the Alps. This is Verbier in western Switzerland.
And Briançon in the French alps.
As long as it’s not raining, the sand just blows through. If it does rain though, we’ll be covered in it.
Overcast today, but still very mild. We’ve been wearing crampons on our shoes since Christmas, but at last we can do without them. The trains are busy with people arriving for the school holidays. Val got a nice shot of the village yesterday evening.
Breaking news! The Indian restaurant is open. OK it’s just for takeaways, but what great news!
It’s a much better day today. The rain has stopped, and we have our nice views back again. Here’s the Breithorn (3,780 metres, 12,401 feet) viewed from our terrace.
Temperatures are high – it’s 10 degrees, and we can happily wander down to the laundry and the cellar without a coat. Despite this, the valley remains completely snowbound. The days are getting noticeably longer now, and the dry weather means we can have a walk. Here’s Val outside our house.
It’s cloudy today, with rain from time to time. I got lucky with my walk up to the post office and didn’t get wet. The village looks like a black and white photograph.
Once again there were no lifts open at Scheidegg, so the few who wanted to ski were confined to a few lifts at Männlichen.
The wet weather continued this morning, and it’s unseasonably mild. This afternoon I popped up to the village for some shopping, and there was just one child skiing on the nursery slope.
Thankfully, despite the rain there’s still plenty of snow for people to enjoy.
January ended with days of rain, and February looks like being similar if today was anything to go by. Non-stop rain. Fortunately, Chalet Iltis is packed to the rafters with food, beer and wine, so there was no need to venture out today.
Hopefully things will improve soon, as the European school holidays begin next weekend, and the village should be busy with visiting families. Fingers crossed.
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