Hochschwab Mountains

Persistent weak layer problem in the northern and eastern sectors!

Persistent weak layer problem in the northern and eastern sectors!

The avalanche risk is low. In the northern and eastern exposures, there is still a persistent weak layer problem at higher altitudes. In steep terrain, small slab avalanches can be triggered by individual winter sports enthusiasts. In general, the risk of entrainment, falling and injury outweighs the risk of burial. However, be careful in the area of terrain traps.

A thin snowpack, sometimes also pillows of wind drifted snow, cover the mostly hard old snowpack. This is weakened on shady slopes by kinetic metamorphism (persistent weak layer problem!). There are faceted crystals between crusts. There is still only a little snow.

In western Upper Styria, the sky was starry for a long time on Saturday night, with thick clouds only appearing again from the west in the early hours of the morning. Over the rest of the country there will be dense clouds throughout, with fog and high fog spreading again in places. On Saturday, the high fog will reach up to around 1300 metres in the peripheral mountain ranges, but dense layered clouds will also persist above this level. The day will be mainly sunny in western Upper Styria, where it will even be cloudless for long stretches. The temperature at an altitude of 2000 metres will be between -4 and -1 degrees. The temperature at an altitude of 1500 metres will be around -1 degrees. The wind will be light with gusts of around 20 km/h.

No change in the avalanche risk is expected. The high pressure weather will remain in place for the next few days. From today's perspective, the next disturbance will reach us during Tuesday with the potential for some new fallen snow on Wednesday.