Northern Lepontine Alps

Wind and new snow above the tree line: Dry avalanches at elevated altitudes.

Wind and new snow above the tree line: Dry avalanches at elevated altitudes.

As a consequence of new snow and a moderate southerly wind, sometimes large wind slabs formed in high Alpine regions. Dry and moist avalanches can be released in near-surface layers and reach quite a large size, caution is to be exercised on very steep slopes. In particular low altitudes: As the moisture increases moist and wet snow slides are possible, even medium-sized ones. In particular on very steep grassy slopes these can slide on the ground. The current avalanche situation calls for careful route selection.

20 to 30 cm of snow, and even more in some localities, has fallen above approximately 2400 m. The rain gave rise on Tuesday to thorough wetting of the snowpack below the tree line. The spring-like weather conditions gave rise to increasing settling of the snowpack in particular at low and intermediate altitudes. Above approximately 2000 m there is still a very large amount of snow.