Totes Gebirge South

Abundant new snow and drifts. Naturally triggered avalanches still likely.

Abundant new snow and drifts. Naturally triggered avalanches still likely.

On Sunday, extremely unfavorable conditions. Due to abundant amounts of new snow and storm-strength winds, avalanche danger is still high. Triggering a slab avalanche on steep slopes in all aspects is likely even by minimum additional loading. Often poor visibility make assessment difficult on-site. Also naturally triggered releases of medium-to-large sized avalanches cannot be ruled out, which could sweep along deeper layers.

The snowpack layering is quite unfavourable. Atop a generally melt-freeze encrusted surface up to 50 cm of fresh cold and loose snow was deposited on Thursday night. As a result of the further snowfall forecast for Saturday night, more heavy snow will land atop this layer in all aspects and it will become increasingly prone to triggering. Summits, crests and ridges will become windblown, the snowdrifts will be deposited even below the treeline.

The Eastern Alps are caught in a classic northern barrier cloud situation: due to stormy NW winds moist-cold air masses have reached the northern flank of the Alps since Friday, focus on northern Styria. The snowfall will persist overnight, in the course of the day on Sunday they will slowly ease and move to the eastern rim of the Alps. The peaks are shrouded in fog, some sunshine peeks through, particularly in the Dachstein region. The stormy winds will not ease much, the snowfall level will ascend to 500 m. Around midday, temperatures will reach -7 degrees at 2000 m; -4 degrees at 1500 m.

The snowpack will slowly settle, avalanche danger will slowly recede.