Villach Alps

Favorable avalanche situation

Favorable avalanche situation

Isolated avalanche prone locations occur on very steep shady slopes and in transitions into gullies and bowls at high altitudes. Avalanches can hardly trigger and releases are small-sized. Due to daytime warming and solar radiation only isolated small wet loose-snow avalanches are possible, esp. on very steep sunny slopes.

Shady slopes: inside the snowpack are expansively metamorphosed (faceted) weak layers. Sunny slopes: Due to low temperatures and low air moisture, a surface crust forms during the nocturnal hours. Sunshine and warmth soften up the snowpack during the daytime hours.

On Saturday, sunshine will initialy predominate, with only thin clouds. During the daytime hours, widespread cloudbanks will move in, noticeable at intermediate altitudes, partially hampering the sunshine. Summits will remain in the clear. But dust from the Sahara desert can provide hazy visibility. The SW winds will be moderate, in exposed terrain strong velocity, at 40-60 km/hr. At midday at 1000m: +12 degrees; at 2000m: +2 degrees. Source: GeoSphere Austria