Bregenzerwald Mountains

Main danger: fresh snow and snowdrift accumulations and weak layers in the old snow

Main danger: fresh snow and snowdrift accumulations and weak layers in the old snow

Fresh snow and snowdrifts are prone to triggering particularly in ridgeline zones, wind-loaded gullies and bowls and behind abrupt discontinuities in the terrain. They tend to increase with ascending altitude. Small to medium slab avalanches can be triggered by one sole winter sports enthusiast. From steep rocky terrain, small-to-medium loose-snow avalanches can trigger naturally. In isolated cases, small glide-snow releases are possible on steep grass-covered slopes and hillsides.

By early morning today there was 15 cm of fresh snow registered widespread. This batch plus the snowfall from the last few days was transported, particularly at high altitudes. The fresh snow and snowdrifts have already settled and further consolidated. They lie deposited atop loose and soft layers or melt-freeze encrusted old snowpack surfaces. Bonding deteriorates with ascending altitude. At high altitudes on shady slopes in particular, there are still weak layers evident deeply embedded inside the snowpack fundament. These danger zones are not visible to the naked eye.

Saturday: an extremely compact bank of clouds is graying the sky, the summits are mostly free. It is expected to remain dry until this evening, not until the following night is rainfall expected to reach over 2000 m. Brisk westerly winds, stronger in the afternoon; in the foehn-impacted lanes southerly foehn wind will prevail.

The nighttime precipitation will recede on Sunday, it will remain dry until past midday. Then cloud cover will move in and snowfall can be expected in all regions. The snowfall level will descend from over 2000 m to below 1000 m. As a result of fresh snow and wind, avalanche danger levels are expected to increase on Sunday.