Lechquellen Mountains

Beware fresh snow, drifts and weak layers on shady slopes: prone to triggering

Beware fresh snow, drifts and weak layers on shady slopes: prone to triggering

The fresh snow and drifts can trigger medium-sized avalanches even by minimum additional loading. Danger zones occur primarily in steep terrain and in wind-loaded gullies and bowls. Frequency and spread of avalanche prone locations increase with ascending altitude and during the course of the day. If avalanches on high-altitude shady slopes fracture down to deeper weak layers, they can in isolated cases then grow to large size. Such avalanche prone locations occur primarily in spots where the snow is shallow or in transitions from shallow to deep snow. Particularly if there is solar radiation, small-to-medium sized avalanches are possible in steep rocky terrain.

From Saturday until Sunday morning there was about 20cm of fresh snow registered in the Arlberg region, up to 25cm in Rätikon, Verwall and the Silvretta. As a result of brisk westerly winds, later on blowing at strong velocity, fresh snowdrift accumulations will be generated. These will be deposited on top of a loosely-pack layer and are prone to triggering. The mid-level part of the snowpack consists of well-settled, compact layers widespread which on high-altitude shady slopes cover a poorly structured old snowpack fundament.

Highly variable conditions due to the westerly air current. Frequently the day will unfold with pleasant weather and intermittent sunshine, but it will be rather windy in the mountains. Later in the morning, heavy cloud cover will pass through, in which case short rain showers can be expected, particularly in the Northern Alps. Temperature at 2000m: -6 degrees; at 3000m: -11 degrees. Westerly winds will initially be blowing at brisk strength, later on at strong velocity at high altitudes.

Avalanche danger will slowly diminish overall, however, intermittent N-NW winds will generate new snowdrift accumulations which will be prone to triggering. With solar radiation, the danger of wet-snow avalanches will increase over the course of each day.