Central Karawanks

New fallen snow in the high alpine regions, weak layers in the old snow cover.

New fallen snow in the high alpine regions, weak layers in the old snow cover.

It snowed in the mountains on Thursday and Friday. On Friday, the snow line dropped, with heavier snowfall in the east of the Alps. Spontaneous avalanches will continue to occur in the high alpine regions. We advise against visiting the high alpine regions in the current conditions! Moderate to strong winds from the north have built up large snowdrift accumulations on the leeward sides. Areas of blowing snow are more dangerous and can trigger a major Avalanche. New fallen snow will put additional load on the old snow cover. This may exceed the load-bearing capacity of the deeper Weak layers and trigger a deep and large avalanche. Such weak layers are abundant, especially in the axis above the forest, but are not excluded elsewhere. In parts of the mid-mountains where it has rained, the rain has wetted the snowpack. Some new fallen snow has fallen on top of this blanket as it cooled.

The old snow cover is made up of layers of bonded snow that are already somewhat compacted and mostly well connected. Deep below the surface, the old snow cover contains several weak layers of shredded and coarse grains. 50-80 cm of New fallen snow has fallen on this base during this snowfall in the High alpine regions. The snow line was mostly between 1200 m and 1500 m on Thursday, but dropped on Friday.

Moderate to mostly cloudy, with cloud base over the tops. Mostly light northerly winds. Temperatures at 1500 m will be around 0 °C, at 2500 m around -6 °C.

Snow conditions will remain challenging, with an increased danger of wet snow avalanches in the mid-mountains as the weather warms up.