Martigny-Verbier

Snowpack

With new snow and a northerly wind, additional wind slabs will form. These are medium-sized on the northern flank of the Alps and in northern Grisons, otherwise rather small. The new snow and wind slabs of the last few days are overlying an old snowpack whose upper part contains coarse-grained weak layers, especially on north- and east-facing slopes at high altitudes.

Weather forecast to Saturday

Snow will fall in the north. In the inneralpine regions, it will be partly cloudy with showers and longer sunny spells. The snowfall level will be 1200 m. It will be mostly sunny in the south.

Fresh snow

From Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, the following amounts of fresh snow are expected above approximately 2000 m:

• Northern Alpine ridge from the Wildstrubel to Liechtenstein, northern Grisons: 15 to 25 cm
• Remaining northern flank of the Alps, Lower Valais, remaining parts of Grisons: 5 to 15 cm
• Upper Valais and Ticino: less or no snow

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, between -3 °C in the north and 0 °C in the south

Wind

Strong at times on the Main Alpine Ridge, elsewhere mostly moderate from the northwest

Weather review for Friday

Following a break during the night, intermittent snowfall resumed during the day. The snowfall level was around 1300 m.

Fresh snow

In the two days from Wednesday evening to Friday afternoon above approximately 2000 m:

• Extreme west of Lower Valais and between Davos, Val Müstair and Upper Engadine: 20 to 40 cm
• Elsewhere a widespread 10 to 20 cm, less in the Upper Valais and Ticino

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, around -2 °C

Wind

Still moderate during the night, mostly light during the day from westerly directions

Outlook to Monday

After a mostly clear night, it will be quite sunny on Monday with cumulus clouds developing as the day progresses. The zero-degree level will be 2200 m in the north and 2500 m in the south. Winds will be mostly light. Sunday night into Monday will be partly overcast. In the late morning, there will still be some bright spells in the east, while elsewhere there will be showers and isolated thunderstorms. The snowfall level will be around 2000 m. The winds will be light to moderate from the west.

The danger of dry avalanches will decrease, but only slowly on very steep north-facing slopes in the high alpine regions. As a consequence of solar radiation and daytime warming, the danger of wet avalanches will increase somewhat as the day progresses. In particular, near-surface moist avalanches caused by the fresh snow of recent days are to be expected.