Bavarian Prealps East

Still possibility of wet and glide snow avalanches at low and intermediate altitudes due to continuing warm temperatures.

Still possibility of wet and glide snow avalanches at low and intermediate altitudes due to continuing warm temperatures.

Main problem: wet snow. Some loose wet snow and slab avalanches can trigger naturally at all altitudes and in all aspects. The wet snow avalanche activity follows a low daytime danger cycle. Furthermore, naturally releasing glide snow avalanches are possible on steep smooth grass-covered slopes in all aspects at every time of day or night. Avalanches stay mostly small to medium-sized. In the Allgäu and at high altitude large avalanches cannot be excluded. Avoid areas below glide cracks! Above 1800m the snowdrifts of recent days are mostly only triggerable by large additional loading, as medium-sized slab avalanches. Avalanche prone locations are found in wind-loaded gullies and bowls as well as behind protuberances in the terrain. They tend to increase in frequency and size with ascending altitude. At high altitude they can here and there also grow to large size where more deeply embedded layers are triggered.

Tuesday night will be cloudy, therefore only a thin melt freeze crust will form which quickly softens again.  The snowpack will thus forfeit its firmness. The snowpack base is moist to wet, in particular at low to intermediate altitudes which facilitates gliding of the snow masses. The snowdrifts of recent days are bonding increasingly due to warming. In places, there are still trigger-prone layers consisting of faceted crystals above approximately 1800m adjacent to crusts and at the snowpack base at high altitudes. The crusts can in addition turn into water retaining layers.

In the next few days the avalanche danger will diminish further.