Mur Mountains, Gurktal Alps

15 to 30 cm of new fallen snow with wind on a weak old snowpack! Tricky situation for winter sports in open terrain!

15 to 30 cm of new fallen snow with wind on a weak old snowpack! Tricky situation for winter sports in open terrain!

15 to 30 cm of new fallen snow was deposited on a soft snow surface or surface hoar under moderate to strong winds. Medium-sized slab avalanches can be triggered in some places. Naturally triggered avalanches and remote triggering are also possible. Fractures can tear through the poorly built-up persistent weak layer. The avalanche prone locations are barely recognisable and should be assessed defensively. Take particular care in the transition from a little to a lot of snow and in the blown-in entrance areas of gullies and bowls.

Due to 15 to 30 cm of new fallen snow and moderate to strong winds, fresh drift snow packs have formed, some of which have been deposited on surface hoar or a soft snow surface. Fractures usually occur at the transition from new fallen snow to old snowpack or within the old snowpack. Between melt-freeze crusts, the old snowpack consists of deep rime and angular forms.

The last rain and snowfall will subside on Thursday evening. Low residual clouds will often remain south of the main Alpine ridge. After residual clouds and fog have cleared, Friday will temporarily bring quite sunny mountain weather, but clouds will return from the south-west in high and medium-high layers during the afternoon. However, it will remain dry until the evening. The wind will blow moderately to strongly from a south-westerly to north-westerly direction. Temperatures at 2000 metres will be between -2 and +2 degrees, at 1500 metres between -1 and +4 degrees.

On Friday, there will be a brief intermittent high with some sunny spells. In the afternoon, it will start to get cloudy again from the west. The avalanche danger decreases slightly.