Waadtländer Voralpen

Snowpack

In many places, the snowpack is strongly affected by wind. Only on slopes that are protected from the wind was there still loose, faceted snow near the surface and in some cases surface hoar. During the night into Saturday, the sometimes storm force southerly winds transported the loosely bonded old snow in the north, creating wind slabs that were particularly prone to triggering in the regions exposed to the foehn wind.

The fresh and somewhat older wind slabs are lying on an old snowpack, which varies in nature from region to region:

• North of a line from the Rhône to the Rhine and in the extreme west of Lower Valais, the snowpack is often well consolidated in the central part and the snow layering is therefore more favourable. Hardly any avalanches starting in weak layers in the near-ground old snowpack are to be expected.
• South of a line from the Rhône to the Rhine, at high altitude there are distinct weak layers in the snowpack In these, avalanches can still be triggered in places, sometimes reaching down to the ground. In central and southern Ticino, as well as in Val Bregaglia and Val Poschiavo, there is so little old snow that avalanches can usually only be triggered in these layers above approximately 2600 m. The thin snowpack is increasingly transforming into faceted crystals, which reduces the probability of avalanches being triggered and makes sinking to the ground increasingly possible.

Weather forecast to Sunday

In the north, it will be sunny in the mountains with patches of cloud. It will be cloudy in the south and precipitation will set in in the morning. The snowfall level will be between 1000 and 1200 m.

Fresh snow

Until Sunday afternoon, above approximately 1300 m:

• From the Monte Rosa region to the Simplon region on the border with Italy, 10 to 20 cm.
• In northwestern Ticino 5 to 10 cm, on the remaining western part of the Main Alpine Ridge and on the southern flank of the Alps as well as in the Jungfrau region, a few centimetres.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, +2 °C in the west, +4 °C in the east and -3 °C in the south.

Wind

• Moderate to strong from southeast to south.
• In the regions that are exposed to the foehn wind in the north, moderate foehn wind from the south, sometimes as far as the valleys.

Weather review for Saturday

Conditions were sunny in the mountains.

Fresh snow

-

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, +4 °C in the north and 0 °C in the south.

Wind

From south-east to south

• Strong to stormy during the night on the Northern Alpine Ridge, otherwise moderate to strong in the north, in some places up to the foehn valleys.
• Weak to moderate in the south.

Outlook

On Monday and Tuesday, it will be sunny with patches of cloud in the mountains in the north. It will be very cloudy in the south on Monday, with widespread snowfall of 5 to 10 cm and up to 20 cm on the Main Alpine Ridge in Upper Valais on the border with Italy. The snowfall level will be between 1000 and 1200 m. During the night into Tuesday, the snowfall will end in the south and it will become increasingly sunny as the day progresses. The wind will ease on Sunday evening and be light to moderate, blowing from the south.

On the Main Alpine Ridge and south of it, the avalanche danger will increase on Monday. Danger level 3 (considerable) may be reached on the Main Alpine Ridge in Upper Valais and in northwestern Ticino. Elsewhere, the avalanche danger will not change significantly.