The winter of 2025/2026 had periods when it manifested itself in more pronounced winter conditions. At lower elevations, especially around the first third of winter, there was often fog or a low inversion. At that time, unpleasant wet weather prevailed in the lower elevations, but the amount of precipitation was low. The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ) reported on this on its website.
“The lack of early winter precipitation began to make up for itself in January, when a combination of temperature and precipitation conditions allowed snow to fall, which remained on the ground during the January freeze wave longer than in many winters in the late second and early third decades of the 21st century.” meteorologists zoomed in.
In February, according to SHMÚ, cloudy to overcast weather lasted for a long time and there were also periods with precipitation. The proportion of precipitation from snowfall was mostly lower than in January, which was also reflected in the lower number of days with snow cover. “The exception was the area of the extreme southwest of Slovakia, which was hit by a band of heavy snowfall at the end of the second decade of February, which hit even more the extreme west of Hungary and the extreme east and southeast of Austria,” experts added.
They also compared the number with snow cover in the winter of 2024/2025 and the recently concluded winter of 2025/2026. In the last winter, according to meteorologists, the number of days with snow cover was higher than in the previous one. In high mountain locations, this number of days was roughly comparable and stable in both winters. However, the amount of precipitation was low in the recently ended winter. It was the 13th poorest winter in terms of precipitation since 1881. The total precipitation for the entire territory of Slovakia was 86 millimeters, and in the previous winter of 2024/2025 it was 60 millimeters.
