Bregenzerwald Mountains

Fresh snowdrifts at high altitudes. Glide-snow avalanches persist.

Fresh snowdrifts at high altitudes. Glide-snow avalanches persist.

For winter sports enthusiasts, predominantly favorable conditions prevail with moderate avalanche danger. In high ridgeline terrain, in gullies and bowls, freshly generated snowdrift accumulations require special attentiveness: they are often blanketed by fresher snowdrifts and are trigger-prone. Danger zones increase with ascending altitude. One winter sports enthusiast can trigger a medium-sized slab avalanche. Apart from the dangers of being buried in snow masses, the risks of being swept along and forced to take a fall also need consideration. Beware cornices on ridges. Glide-snow avalanches are difficult to forecast or estimate. They can trigger in all aspects below 2600 m at any time of day or night and grow to medium size. Caution below glide cracks. Loose-snow slides possible on very steep sunny slopes.

Fresh small snowdrift accumulations lie deposited atop a generally stable old snowpack. On steep shady slopes often atop soft layers of old snow. Covered drifts at high altitudes often lie atop a snowpack with weak near-surface layers, are thus prone to triggering. The warm ground and wet snowpack base reinforce gliding snowpack movements. Below 1400 m there is very little snow on the ground.

Nocturnal hours: Cloudbanks will move in intermittently, becoming heavier in early morning. Light rainfall is possible. Wednesday daytime: Gray skies to start with, occasional light rainfall is possible here and there (snow above 1500-1800 m). Intermittent sunshine during the daytime hours, rising temperatures. At 2000 m: -2 to +3 degrees. Moderate-to-brisk westerly/northwesterly winds.

Intermittent sunshine is anticipated on Thursday, and it will be very mild. The danger of dry-snow avalanches will not change significantly. Due to rising daytime temperatures and solar radiation, wet slides and avalanches will be possible. Glide-snow avalanches will still be possible and hard to estimate and predict.