Lechquellen Mountains

Isolated avalanche prone locations occur in persistent weak layer of old snow.

Isolated avalanche prone locations occur in persistent weak layer of old snow.

Isolated avalanches can be triggered in the weak persistent layer of the old snow on very steep shady slopes. The releases are generally small-sized.. Freshly generated small-sized snowdrift accumulations require attentiveness in high-altitude ridgeline terrain, gullies and bowls. The risks of taking a fall and being injured outweigh those of being buried in snow masses.

The small amounts of fresh fallen snow from Tuesday were deposited atop a superficially melt-freeze encrusted old snowpack surface. On shady slopes the snow lies on top of an expansively metamorposed and generally loosely-packed (faceted, metamorphosed, unbonded crystals) snowpack surface. On south-facing slopes the ground which is bare of snow up to high altitudes got a few centimetres of fresh snowfall. At high altitudes, strong-velocity westerly winds will generate fresh snowdrift accumulations. Since there are only small amounts of transportable snow, the drifts will remain small. On shady slopes in high alpine regions, isolated weak layers occur inside the snowpack. Little information from outlying terrain is currently available to the Avalanche Warning Services.

At high altitudes, cloudbanks will pass through, but sunshine is expected to outweigh their effect significantly over the next few days. During the afternoon hours, cloud cover will be somewhat heavier. Winds will shift to westerly-to-southwesterly, temperatures will ascend at all altitudes, but it will remain cold. Temperatures at 2000 m rising from -10 to -3 degrees; at 3000m from -13 to -9 degrees. Brisk westerly winds at high altitudes, increasingly intensifying to strong-velocity during the afternoon.

Avalanche danger is not expected to change significantly. In spite of strong-velocity winds, only small snowdrift accumulations will be generated.