Stub and Gleinalpe

Low avalanche danger. Southern regions have better weather.

Low avalanche danger. Southern regions have better weather.

Avalanche danger in Styria is low. At intermediate and low altitudes the danger of naturally triggered glide-snow avalanches on steep smooth grassy slopes still threatens. These can trigger at any time of day or night, zones below glide cracks should be avoided. Due to diffuse solar radiation, increasingly frequent wet loose-snow avalanches can trigger from steep zones which have not yet discharged. On very seteep N/E facing slopes at high altitude, in addition, isolated slab avalanches cannot be ruled out by large additional loading (persistent weak layer).

The snowpack has settled well, is mostly stable. On higher-altitude shady slopes the snowpack is mostly dry, moist lower down, in places it is already isotherm. Depending on wind impact and solar radiation, the surface is melt-freeze encrusted or hardened, a loose layer exists only on shady wind-protected slopes. Trigger-sensitive weak layers exist more deeply embedded inside the snowpack in the form of faceted crystals around older melt-freeze crusts. In addition, when the snowpack is thoroughly wet there is a wet sliding layer in the transitions to the ground which is responsible for glide-snow avalanches.

Austria lies in the path of a powerful NW air current which is supplying moist air masses to the northern flank of the Alps. Along the Northern Alps in the morning hours, barrier clouds will accumulate, visibility will become reduced, minor precipitation will result. Slowly the clouds will disperse from the west, but skies will still remain gloomy in the Hochschwab region. On the southern flank of the Alps, weather conditions are more pleasant. Apart from high-altitude cirrus clouds it will be sunny with good visibility. Brisk to strong NW winds, especially on the eastern rim of the Alps (Hochschwab Massif, Mürzsteger Alps, Wechsel) it will be stormy. Temperatures are rising from north to south, in the Northern Alps at midday at 2000 m: zero degrees; from Turracher Höhe to Koralpe at +6 degrees.

On Sunday, a perturbance in the Northern Alps will bring precipitation to the Niedere Tauern, snowfall level dropping to 1100-1300 m by evening. NW winds will be strong to stormy. Southern massifs will have better weather. The wet-snow and glide-snow problem swill decrease.