Martigny-Verbier

Snowpack

With some new fallen snow and strong westerly winds, widespread wind slabs developed at high altitude on Wednesday. These are prone to triggering. On Thursday, additional wind slabs will form.

The structure of the snowpack varies greatly from region to region:

• Along the Main Alpine Ridge in Grisons, in the Upper Engadine and in northern regions of Ticino, new and drift snow that fell during the night into Tuesday was deposited on a thin but often completely transformed snowpack in many places. This thin old snowpack was particularly present in gullies and bowls on western, northern and eastern slopes above 2200 m. Here, avalanches can easily be triggered.
• In the inneralpine regions of Valais and Grisons, there are distinct weak layers in the snowpack at high altitude. In these, avalanches can be triggered in places and sometimes tear through to the ground.
• North of a line from the Rhône to the Rhine and in the extreme west of Lower Valais, the snowpack structure is more favourable. Avalanches in weak layers in the old snowpack are only possible in isolated cases.

Weather forecast to Thursday, 09.01.2025

Precipitation will set in during the night in the west and south. During the day, it will be mostly very cloudy in the west and south, with intermittent precipitation. The snowfall level will be around 1700 m in the north and 1400 m in the south. On the eastern part of the northern flank of the Alps and in Grisons, it will be brighter at times and mostly dry.

Fresh snow

Between Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon, the following amounts of fresh snow are expected above 2000 m:

• The extreme west of Lower Valais: 20 to 40 cm
• Northern Alpine Ridge west of the Grimsel Pass, Val Bregaglia, Bernina region: 15 to 25 cm
• Other regions of the western part of the northern flank of the Alps and of Valais, central part of the southern flank of the Alps: 5 to 15 cm
• Elsewhere: less, or it will remain dry.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, between 0 °C in the north and -2 °C in the south.

Wind

Strong, at times stormy from the southwest

Weather review for Wednesday, 08.01.2025

There was some intermittent precipitation in the west and north in the late morning, then it cleared up. The snowfall level rose from 1000 m to between 1800 and 2000 m. In Grisons and the south, it was quite sunny and mostly dry.

Fresh snow

On Wednesday, the following amounts of fresh snow fell above 2200 m:

• Extreme west of Lower Valais, Northern Alpine Ridge west of the Grimsel Pass: 15 to 25 cm
• rest of the northern flank of the Alps, rest of Valais: 5 to 15 cm
• Elsewhere: less or dry.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, between +2 °C in the north and -2 °C in the south.

Wind

On the northern flank of the Alps and generally at high altitudes, strong winds from the southwest to west; in Grisons and the south, moderate winds from the southwest

Outlook

Snow will fall widely in the north and west during the night into Friday. The snowfall level will drop rapidly to low altitudes. After a break in the precipitation on Friday, precipitation will fall again during the night into Saturday. Between Thursday afternoon and Saturday midday, a total of 20 to 40 cm of new fallen snow is expected on the northern flank of the Alps, in Valais and in northern Grisons, with up to 50 cm possible in some places on the Northern Alpine Ridge and in the areas bordering France. On Saturday, it will be quite sunny in the inneralpine regions and in the south, but mostly cloudy on the northern flank of the Alps. The wind will mostly blow strongly from the west to northwest into the night to Saturday, after which it will die down.

In the regions exposed to heavier precipitation in the west and north, the avalanche danger will increase across a wide area. Naturally triggered avalanches are increasingly expected. Otherwise the avalanche danger will hardly change. In the north and west, gliding avalanches are still possible below 2000 m.