Lower Tauern South

Caution: wet snow and persistent weak layer

Caution: wet snow and persistent weak layer

Avalanche danger is moderate. Dry-snow slab avalanches can be triggered by one sole skier above 2300m, the fresh snowdrifts have been deposited also distant from ridgelines in gullies and bowls, avalanches can reach medium size and fracture down to more deeply embedded layers in the snowpack esp. on little-tracked steep north-facing slopes. Small-to-medium moist and dry-snow naturally triggered slab avalanches are possible below 2300m. Wet-snow avalanches in extremely steep terrain and isolated glide-snow avalanches can be expected, mostly small releases.

Due to reduced nocturnal outgoing longwave radiation the snowpack surface can hardly cool and rapidly softens in the early morning hours. The snowpack is moist in all aspects up to high altitudes. On shady slopes at high and high-alpine altitudes the freshly generated foehn-induced drifts lie deposited atop an unfavorable snowpack surface. Inside the old snowpack are several weak layers of faceted crystals which can serve as a slab atop the fresh snowdrifts. Also on sunny slopes, moist slabs can slide away over the uppermost crusts of the old snowpack.

Wednesday will start with dense clouds and minor showers, During the morning the clouds will disperse somewhat over the big valleys, but soon thereafter more rainfall and snow showers will move in from the northwest, snowfall level at 1800-2000m. At high and high-alpine altitudes: 5-10cm of fresh snow is anticipated. Winds mostly light to moderate from the northwest. At 2000m: -1 to -2 degrees; at 3000m: -8 degrees.

Little change expected