südliches Urseren

Snowpack

The wind slabs from Saturday will continue to grow with new fallen snow in the north on Sunday. In addition, in older layers in the upper part of the snowpack, weak layers with a sometimes faceted crystal structure are deposited, especially on shady slopes at high altitudes. Deep layers of the snowpack are compact in many places and for the most part do not contain distinct weak layers.

Last week, the snowpack got thoroughly moist up to around 3000 m on south-facing slopes, 2000 to 2500 m on east- and west-facing slopes and around 1800 to 2000 m on north-facing slopes.

With the significant drop in temperatures, gliding avalanche activity will decrease. However, gliding avalanches are still possible, especially on east-, south- and west-facing slopes below approximately 2600 m and on north-facing slopes below approximately 2000 m. These may be large.

Weather forecast until Sunday, 24.03.2024

In the north, snow will fall to low altitudes. In the south, it will be mostly dry and partly sunny.

New snow

From Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, the following amounts of fresh snow are expected above 1200 m:

• extreme west of Lower Valais, Northern Alpine Ridge: 20 to 30 cm;
• Jura, rest of the northern flank of the Alps, rest of Valais, northern Grisons: 10 to 20 cm;
• elsewhere: less, or it will remain dry.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, -7 °C in the north and -4 °C in the south.

Wind

There will be a westerly wind, northwesterly in Ticino:

• strong during the night, sometimes storm force at high altitudes;
• decreasing and mostly moderate during the day.

Weather review for Saturday, 23.03.2024

After a mostly clear night, a band of precipitation moved across Switzerland from the west in the early morning. In the early morning, it was still sunny in Grisons. From the middle of the day, there were increasing bright spells from the west, but with frequent showers in between. The snowfall level dropped from 2200 m to between 1200 and 1400 m.

New snow

From Saturday morning to Saturday afternoon, the following amounts of fresh snow were recorded:

• Lower Valais, northern flank of the Alps, northern and central Grisons: 5 to 15 cm, with up to 25 cm locally towards the east;
• less elsewhere.

Temperature

Temperatures fell, reaching between -3 °C in the north and +3 °C in the south at midday at 2000 m.

Wind

• Winds were moderate during the night in the north, and increasingly strong to storm force as the day progressed, blowing from the west to northwest.
• There was a light to moderate southerly wind in the south.

Trend until Tuesday, 26.03.2024

During Sunday night into Monday, some more snow will fall in the north to low altitudes. During the day, it will be sunny in all regions. In the afternoon, a moderate foehn wind from the south will develop in the north. This will intensify during Monday night into Tuesday, becoming strong to storm force in the Alpine valleys of the north. With the foehn wind, the zero-degree level in the north will rise to around 2400 m. Light precipitation will set in in the south. During the day, there will be increased bright spells in the north, while in the south it will be cloudy with some precipitation.

The danger of dry avalanches will decrease somewhat on Monday. Moist avalanches are to be expected from the new fallen snow in the north. On Tuesday, the danger of dry avalanches will increase somewhat in the north with the foehn wind and in the south with the new fallen snow. Gliding avalanches will still be possible on both days.