Wölz Tauern South

Trigger-sensitive snowdrifts particularly in E/W aspects

Trigger-sensitive snowdrifts particularly in E/W aspects

Avalanche danger in the Northern Alps has receded, is now considerable (in Niedere Tauern). Triggering a slab avalanche is possible even by minimum additional loading in many places, particularly in extended E/S aspects on leeward slopes. In the western massifs, sunny weather and mild temperatures are helping the snowpack to settle.

Due to stormy winds in recent days the fresh snow has been distributed in highly varied ways. In Totes Gebirge there is more than a metre of new snow, on the northern flank of the Tauern up to 40 cm. Snowpack layering is quite unfavorable: atop an encrusted old-snow fundament, often blanketed with surface hoar, cold and loose new snow was deposited. With further precipitation, heavier snow landed atop this layer in all aspects, and became increasingly prone to triggering.

The Eastern Alps are caught between a high over the Atlantic and a NE air current. From the west, high-pressure conditions are coming.. Styria is divided in two: west and southwest are bathed in sunshine; the eastern massifs still endur a moist-cold climate and low lying clouds. Temperatures in the western massifs will reach -2 degrees at 2000 m; -2 degrees at 1500 m in the west, -5 in the east. On the eastern rim of the Alps, strong NW winds will rise. Wednesday, quite similar. The high over the Azores will expand, but the eastern regions of Styria will remain moist. In the course of the afternoon the clouds will disperse somewhat. The NW winds will remain strong here, unlike in the other regions.

Despite higher temperatures and the resultant settling of the snowpack, the situation will persist.