Central Julian Alps

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, and up to 30 cm in the Southern Julian Alps. The snowfall level was around 1300 m most of the time, rising to 1700 m towards the end of the precipitation. The snowpack is thinned to around 1700 m due to the rain, 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 cohesion of the layers of blown snow in snowdrift accumulations built up by the southerly wind during the snowfall is weaker. In the old snow cover, there are several weak layers of shreds and sheared grains deep below the surface.

Thursday evening will clear from the NW, with NW winds. Friday will be mostly sunny. Winds will diminish on Friday morning, but will be replaced by westerly winds in the afternoon.

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.