Road crews prepare for snowfall in Upper Austria

Road maintenance teams in Upper Austria are ready for possible snowfall, ORF reported, with the snow line expected to drop to between 700 and 1,000 metres from Thursday into Friday. The Mühlviertel region and the southern uplands could get a thin covering of snow.

Preparations for the winter season began in summer, with salt silos filled, winter vehicles serviced and snowploughs fitted. The Pregarten road maintenance depot has three silos with a combined capacity of 900 tonnes. Its manager, Dietmar Pölzl, said the depot expects to use between 1,200 and 2,000 tonnes of salt this season and will order more as needed. The team has also used preventive brine spreading for several years.

Meteorologist Michael Butschek said initial forecasts point to the coming months being significantly warmer than the long-term average. He said it was too early to predict when colder periods might occur.

Austria’s situational winter tyre requirement applies from 1 November to 15 April, including during mild weather.