Fischbach Alps East, Wechsel

Heed fresh snowdrifts

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; -3 degrees at 1500 m. On Tuesday, high-pressure front conditions will temporarily prevail: cloudless skies, rising temperatures, intensifying winds.

Heed fresh snowdrifts

In the eastern Fischbacher and Mürztaler Alps, moderate avalanche danger prevails above the treeline. Steep slopes require caution, where new snow and wind impact permit new snowdrift accumulations to be generated. Wind-loaded E/S/W facing slopes can be treacherous. Caution urged in transitions from shallow to deeper snow.

In the rimline ranges the amounts of new snow are minor. In the Fischbacher Alps. Wechsel region and the Mürztaler Alps a few centimetres was added. Due to permanently strong-velocity winds, the plateaus are becoming windblown, on leeward slopes new drifts can be accumulated which then blanket the softer layers or surface hoar.

Little change in the current avalanche danger levels