östliche Berner Voralpen

Snowpack

Some of the fresh drift snow and near-surface layers are prone to triggering. Around the crusts in older layers in the upper part of the snowpack, weak layers with a sometimes faceted crystal structure are deposited, especially on shady slopes. Deep layers of the snowpack are compact in many places and for the most part do not contain distinct weak layers.

The snowpack is moist up to approximately 3000 m on south-facing slopes, up to 2000-2400 m on east and west-facing slopes, and up to approximately 1800-2000 m on north-facing slopes.

The reduced night-time outgoing longwave radiation during Thursday night into Friday will lead to the formation of a thin melt-freeze crust, which will soften rapidly as the day progresses. At high altitude, there will be loose snow in the regions with fresh snow, which will moisten on steep sunny slopes as the day progresses and may slide away as loose snow slides. Gliding avalanches are still to be expected, primarily on east-, south- and west-facing slopes below approximately 2600 m and on north-facing slopes below approximately 2000 m. These may be large.

Weather forecast until Friday, 22.03.2024

During Thursday night into Friday, the precipitation will end in the north and east, and then the skies will clear. The snowfall level will be between 1800 m and 2000 m. In the west and south, it will be a mostly clear night. During the day it will be generally sunny with veil clouds. The zero-degree level will rise to around 3000 m.

New snow

Above approximately 2200 m along the northern flank of the Alps from the eastern flank of the Bernese Alps to the Alpstein and in Grisons, up to 5 cm of fresh snow is expected, with 10 cm in some localities.

Temperature

The temperature will rise; it will be +6 °C in the west and +4 °C in the south and east at midday at 2000 m.

Wind

• During Thursday night into Friday, there will be moderate to strong winds, and along the Main Alpine Ridge strong to storm-force winds, blowing from the north.
• The winds will ease by the early morning, and during the day will be weak to moderate, blowing from the west to northwest.

Weather review for Thursday, 21.03.2024

In the north, it varied between cloudy with bright spells and very cloudy with showery precipitation. The snowfall level was 2400 m in the west and 2000 m in the east. South of the Main Alpine Ridge, it was fairly sunny with patches of cloud.

New snow

From Thursday morning to Thursday afternoon, the following amounts of fresh snow were recorded above approximately 2600 m:

• northern flank of the Alps east of the Jungfrau, Prättigau, Silvretta: 10 to 20 cm;
• rest of the northern flank of the Alps, Valais, rest of northern Grisons and rest of northern Lower Engadine: 5 to 10 cm;
• less elsewhere, dry in the south.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, +4 °C in the west and south and +2 °C in the east.

Wind

There were westerly to northwesterly winds:

• these were weak to moderate during Wednesday night into Thursday;
• during the day, they freshened up in the north and were moderate to strong at high altitude.

Trend until Sunday, 24.03.2024

Friday night into Saturday is expected to be clear. During the day, it will be cloudy in the west and north with precipitation. In the south and east, it will be sunny at first, before becoming increasingly cloudy as the day progresses with some precipitation in the east. It will cool down significantly, with the snowfall level dropping from 1800 m to 1000 m. On Sunday, in the north it will vary between cloudy with bright spells and very cloudy with showers. The snowfall level will be between 500 m and 800 m. In the south, it will be mostly sunny with northerly winds.

Between 20 cm and 40 cm of snow is expected to fall in the north at the weekend. There will be strong westerly to northwesterly winds at high altitude on both days.

The danger of dry avalanches will widely increase in the west and north, but will hardly change in the south. The danger of wet avalanches will fall. Gliding avalanches are still possible and may be large.