Totes Gebirge South

Huge amounts of fresh snow and snowdrifts - naturally triggered avalanches still possible

Huge amounts of fresh snow and snowdrifts - naturally triggered avalanches still possible

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. In eastern massifs, poor visibility makes assessment on-site more difficult. Naturally triggered medium-to-large avalanches are possible amid solar radiation, since deeper layers of the snowpack can be swept along.

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 on Thursday night. With further precipitation on Saturday, heavier snow landed atop this layer in all aspects, and became increasingly prone to triggering. Also on Sunday, particularly in the eastern massifs, there was further snowfall, at low altitudes there was persistent rainfall. Summits, crests and ridges were blown bare by winds, and the fresh snowdrifts extend down to the timberline.

The Eastern Alps are caught in a classic northern barrier cloud situation: high-pressure front conditions are coming from the west, further to the east the northern barrier cloud situation persists. After the latest snow showers, cloud in the Dachstein-Tauern regions will disperse in the course of the morning and it will become increasingly sunny. Only over the Tauern will high fog persist. From Ennstal Alps eastwards weather conditions will improve only gradually, most of the peaks will be veiled in fog, from Hochschwab to Rax all day long. Until midday there could be minor snowfall. Initially strong northerly winds will gradually ease. Around midday, temperatures in the western massifs will reach -5 degrees at 2000 m; -3 degrees at 1500 m; cooler in the east: -8 or -6 degrees. On Tuesday, sunny high-pressure conditions will reign temporarily. Temperatures will rise significantly at all altitudes, and winds will intensify.

Due to the higher temperatures and the resultant settling of the snowpack, the situation will relax somewhat.