Savinja Alps and Carinthia

New fallen snow in the high alpine regions, wet snow avalanches possible in the mid alpine regions.

New fallen snow in the high alpine regions, wet snow avalanches possible in the mid alpine regions.

On Thursday and Friday, there was heavy snow in the mountains. The snow line dropped on Friday, with heavier snowfall in the east of the Alps. Current conditions are challenging. Moderate to strong northerly winds have built up large snowdrift accumulations on the leeward sides. More dangerous are areas of blowing snow, where a small load can trigger a major Avalanche. Weak layers in the snowpack are also a problem. If the load exceeds the load-bearing capacity of the deeper Weak layers, a deep and large avalanche can be triggered. These weak layers are particularly abundant in the axis above the forest, but cannot be ruled out elsewhere. The mountains have warmed up and the zero isotherm will rise to an altitude of around 2500 m on Sunday afternoon and evening. In the mid-mountains, the warming will lead to wet snow avalanches, with the possibility of gliding avalanches on steeper slopes.

The old snow cover is made up of layers of bonded snow that are already somewhat compacted and mostly well connected. Deep below the surface, the old snow cover contains several weak layers of shredded and coarse grains. 50-80 cm of New fallen snow has fallen on this base during this snowfall in the High alpine regions. The snow line was mostly between 1200 m and 1500 m on Thursday, but dropped on Friday.

Moderate to mostly cloudy, with cloud base over the tops. Mostly light northerly winds. Temperatures at 1500 m will be around 0 °C, at 2500 m around -6 °C.

Snow and weather conditions will be similar in the coming days. Under the influence of warmer weather, snow will start to change more quickly, especially in the mid-mountains.