Totes Gebirge South

Significant avalanche danger above the tree line. Even a single person can trigger a slab avalanche!

Significant avalanche danger above the tree line. Even a single person can trigger a slab avalanche!

The avalanche danger is considerable above the tree line (level 3), below it is low. Fresh snowdrift accumulations, mainly in the north, east and south sectors, can be triggered as medium slab avalanches in many places behind ridgelines, terrain edges and in gullies and bowls, even with a small additional load.

Up to 40 cm of new fallen snow has fallen since Thursday, sometimes interspersed with graupel. It will continue to snow until Sunday morning. The snow has been transported to the eastern sectors by strong westerly to north-westerly winds and is forming bonded snow there. The fresh wind slab can contain weak layers and often lies on an unstable layer of faceted crystals or surface hoar. In the foundation of the snow cover, kinetic metamorphism (floating snow) weakens the stability.

In the night to Sunday it will snow on the northern edge of the Alps and in the Niedere Tauern with strong north-westerly winds and icy temperatures. Up to 15 cm of new fallen snow is possible, especially in the Totes Gebirge, while significantly less is expected towards the south and east. During the day, low-lying residual clouds will continue to hang over the northern side of the Alps until midday, causing visibility problems. With a stormy north-westerly wind, it will be very cold at high altitudes. At 2000 metres, the temperature will be between -16 and -14 degrees.

Monday will be significantly warmer during the course of the day, with the possibility of a little precipitation towards the evening. The avalanche risk will hardly change for the time being.