Atmospheric composition measurements at Jungfraujoch are affected intermittently by thermally-driven (anabatic) mountain winds as well as by other vertical transport mechanisms. Using radon-222 observations, and a new analysis method, we quantify the land surface influence hour-by-hour and detect the presence of anabatic winds on a daily basis. During 2010–2011, anabatic winds occurred on roughly 40% of days, but only from April–September. Anabatic wind days were associated with warmer air temperatures over a large fraction of Europe and with a shift in airmass properties. Shifts were evident even when comparing the same radon concentrations, a proxy for land-surface influence. Aerosol washout, when quantified as a function of rain-rate using a radon normalisation technique, was also influenced by anabatic winds being more pronounced on non-anabatic days. Excluding the influence of anabatic winds, however, did not lead to a better definition of the unperturbed aerosol background than a definition based on radon alone, supporting the use of a radon threshold to identify periods with weak land-surface influence.