Hochschwab Mountains

Fresh snow in Styria’s southern regions. Snowdrifts on north-facing slopes.

Fresh snow in Styria’s southern regions. Snowdrifts on north-facing slopes.

Avalanche danger above the treeline is moderate. Danger zones are located in ridgeline terrain and behind abrupt discontinuities in the terrain. Particular caution is urged on high altitude north-facing slopes. Fresh snowdrifts have been deposited on top of an unfavourable old snowpack surface (persistent weak layer). The drifts should not be underestimated at high altitudes! A slab release is possible even with minimum additional loading. As a rule, magnitude 2 releases are expected (but that is enough to be buried in snow masses).

On Saturday night, surface hoar formed at high altitudes. The old snowpack shows pronounced expansively metamorphosed (faceted) layers on north facing slopes at high altitudes. In the fundament there is a sequence of melt-freeze crusts and faceted crystal layers. On sunny slopes the snowpack is hardened and icy. All in all, extremely unfavourable snowpack layering. The old snow will soon be blanketed by fresh snow and snowdrifts.

On Sunday night, a perturbance will take hold. In the southern mountain massifs, intensive snowfall is expected. From Turrach to Koralpe: up to 25 cm of fresh snow expected. In Niedere Tauern: up to 15 cm. The snowfall level will descend down to valley level. In Styria’s northern regions there will be very little fresh snow. Temperatures will drop during the night: at 2000 m, -7 degrees. Monday: weather conditions will improve. Clouds in Upper Styria will disperse, a few hours of sunshine are expected, particularly in the Northern Alps. Foehn-southerly wind will blow over the ridges. Along the rimline ranges, a bit of snowfall until early afternoon, then dry conditions and dispersed clouds.

Over the next few days, variably shifting wind directions (NW to SW). On Wednesday, more fresh snowfall. A further increase in avalanche danger is highly likely.