Luganese

Snowpack

Fresh and drifted snow from the last three days is settling and consolidating rapidly. The snow is moist in the near-surface layers up to over 3000 m. Deeper layers of old snow are water-saturated on southern slopes up to the high Alpine regions, on eastern and western slopes up to a good 3000 m, and on northern slopes up to a maximum of 2800 m. At these altitudes, this was the first time the old weak layers had become moist, resulting in temporary weakening. The significant cooling and fresh snow prevented further saturation of the snowpack. This will decrease the danger of wet avalanches. However, individual wet snow avalanches and superficial snow slides are still possible.

Weather forecast to Wednesday

The night will be clear at times in the north. During the day it will be generally overcast. There will be some precipitation in the south during the night, and also in the north during the day.

Fresh snow

The snowfall level is around 1700 m on the northern flank of the Alps and around 2100 m in the south and inneralpine regions. At high altitudes:

• on the Main Alpine Ridge and south of it: 10 to 20 cm
• Less elsewhere

Temperature

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

Wind

• Light to moderate Bise wind along the Prealps
• Elsewhere slightly windy

Weather review for Tuesday

During the night into Tuesday, some precipitation fell mainly on the southern flank of the Alps and on the central and eastern part of the northern flank of the Alps. During the day, it was mostly very cloudy, but quite sunny in the high Alpine regions.

Fresh snow

During the night into Tuesday, the following amounts fell above approximately 1500 m in the north and above approximately 2000 m in the south:

• on the Main Alpine Ridge from the Nufenen Pass to the Bernina region and south of there: 5 to 15 cm
• elsewhere a few centimetres or dry

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, between +2 °C in the north and +4 °C in the south

Wind

• Moderate Bise wind at times along the Prealps
• Elsewhere mostly light winds from various directions

Outlook

On Thursday and Friday it will be cloudy, often very cloudy with precipitation. The snowfall level will be around 2000 m. In total, around 10 cm of snow will fall at high altitudes in the north and 10 to 20 cm in the south. There will be some sunshine, especially on the southern flank of the Alps and in Valais onThursday and in Valais on Friday. There will be a light to moderate Bise wind along the Prealps, otherwise it will generally be slightly windy.

The risk of dry avalanches will slowly decrease. Wet avalanches are only possible in isolated cases with the cool weather.