Hochschwab Mountains

Fresh snowdrifts. Moderate danger at high altitudes.

Palm Sunday will be variably cloudy and it will be cold. The south will enjoy better conditions, in the afternoon a low over northern Italy will bring snow showers to the southern flank of the Alps. The wet-snow problem will recede, the snowdrift problem will not diminish much.

Fresh snowdrifts. Moderate danger at high altitudes.

Above the treeline danger is moderate, below that altitude danger is low. Danger zones: fresh snowdrift accumulations at high altitudes in W/S aspects, where one sole skier can trigger a slab avalanche. Poor visibility make evaluation more difficult on-site. Particularly on Friday night, naturally triggered wet-snow avalanches can be expected in all aspects. During the day on Saturday the wet-snow problem will diminish.

Beneath the fresh snow from last weekend, weak layers have formed which, however, cannot easily be triggered. Atop them on Friday night, fresh, instable snowdrifts will be deposited. At low altitudes the snowpack is moist down to the ground. This wet fundament will be snowed over on Saturday, depending on region, or become encrusted with a melt-freeze crust.

On Friday night, rainfall up to at least 1800 m. In the latter part of the night it will turn to snowfall and the snowfall level will drop to 1000 m. In the rimline ranges there will be only little fresh snow. The cold front will bring strong NW gusts which will transport the snow. In the afternoon on Saturday, the weather will quiet down, the light snow showers will recede, the winds slacken off. Temperatures at midday at 2000 m: -7 degrees.