Ybbstaler Alpen

New fallen snow and stormy winds lead to a significant increase in avalanche danger!

New fallen snow and stormy winds lead to a significant increase in avalanche danger!

The avalanche risk is considerable above the tree line (level 3!). New fallen snow and stormy winds create fresh snowdrift accumulations in all aspects, which can be triggered by individual winter sports enthusiasts as small to medium-sized slab avalanches. The avalanche prone locations are mainly in gullies, bowls and behind terrain edges. Very occasionally, avalanches can also tear through layers close to the ground. Be especially careful on very steep western, northern and eastern slopes above the tree line. Transitions from a little to a lot of snow are particularly unfavourable.

20 to 40 cm of snow is being transported by strong to stormy north to north-westerly winds. Fresh snowdrift accumulations are deposited above the tree line on a mostly compact old snow surface. Weak layers are located within the drift snow packs or in the transition to the old snowpack. In deep layers in northern, and in some cases also in western and eastern aspects, there are still faceted crystals or floating snow in the old snowpack, but these may already be interspersed with melt-freeze crusts.

In the evening, a cold front will reach Lower Austria from the north-west with strong to stormy winds. The first heavy precipitation will fall as rain up to 1500 metres, after which the snowfall level will quickly drop below 1000 metres. Behind the cold front, the precipitation will weaken and there will also be dry spells during the night to Thursday. A northerly dust situation will then set in, with snow falling at low altitudes on Thursday. From the Ybbstal Alps to the Rax-Schneeberg region, 20 to 40 cm of snow will accumulate above 1000 metres by Thursday evening. Temperatures will plummet: at 2000 metres from 0 degrees to -7 degrees, at 1500 metres from +5 degrees to -5 degrees. Stormy to gale-force winds with wind speeds between 80 and 120 km/h from the north.

The avalanche risk will increase on Friday. An area of low pressure will bring another 20 to 50 cm of new fallen snow, especially in the eastern mountains. Stormy winds will continue to blow.