Savinja Alps and Carinthia

The current snowpack pattern is uncommon and requires special attention and caution!

New fallen snow in the high alpine regions, weak layers persist.

In particular, even a small additional load can trigger a small avalanche on snowdrift accumulations. A triggered avalanche or an otherwise large Additional load may exceed the load-bearing capacity of the deep hard layers, triggering a deep and widespread (large) avalanche. Such weak layers are particularly abundant in the axis above the forest, but are not excluded elsewhere. Gliding avalanches also occur on steep smooth slopes.

Snow has melted on the highest peaks of the sunny slopes in recent days, while only the high alpine regions have remained dry. Up to 10 cm of new fallen snow has fallen since Tuesday afternoon. The snowfall level was around 1300 m most of the time, rising to 1700 m towards the end of the precipitation. The surface of the snowpack has been thinned by the rain up to about 1700 m, and a Crust will form as it cools. The old snow cover is made up of layers of bonded snow that are already somewhat compacted and mostly well interconnected. The layers of blown snow in snowdrift accumulations built up by southerly winds during the snowfall are less well connected. In the old snow cover, there are several weak layers of shreds and faceted snow crystals deep below the surface.

Thursday will be cloudy and foggy with light precipitation, with a snowfall level between 1200 and 1400 m and up to 10 cm of New fallen snow. There will be a strong SW wind in the 2nd half of the night, which will ease a little during the day.

The avalanche danger will remain similar until the end of the week. There will be a little more New fallen snow on Thursday and sunny skies on Friday.