Lower Tauern South

Circumvent snowdrifts esp. at high altitudes

Sunday will have reduced visibility, some bright intervals and sunshine as of midday. Minor snowfall is possible. Rainfall up to 1500 m. Winds in the Lungau and along the Main Tauern Ridge will be northerly, up to 50 km/hr. At 2000 m: -3 degrees; at 3000 m: -10 degrees.

As temperatures rise on Monday, the snowdrift problem will recede, the wet-snow problem will come to the foreground.

Circumvent snowdrifts esp. at high altitudes

Avalanche danger above 2000 m is CONSIDERABLE, below that altitude danger is MODERATE. Snowdrift accumlations esp. on N/E facing slopes behind abrupt drops in the terrain can be easily triggered with increasing altitude up to high alpine regions also on south-facing slopes. Slabs small-to-medium, also large in isolated cases. Danger zones increase with ascending altitude. Also possible: isolated naturally triggered loose and slab avalanches, esp small and medium sized in extremely steep terrain. On steep grass slopes, esp. where the ground was bare, below 2000 m, naturally triggered glide-snow avalanches are possible, in medium size.

Over the last few days there has been 30-80 cm of fresh snow registered (less on the Tirolean border, more on the Upper Austrian/Styrian border and in Hohe Tauern and Glockner and Goldberg massifs). Fresh snow and drifts are bonding well up to 2000/2200 m, deteriorate higher up. In places there are expansively metamorphosed (faceted) layers bordering on melt-freeze crusts in the uppermost part of the snowpack; these are unlikely to trigger, but if further layers are swept away when a release occurs, the avalanches can then grow to large size.